‘Town corridor pen pushers’ pocketing £1 in £4 of YOUR council tax | Politics | News | EUROtoday

At least £1 in £4 of council tax goes straight into funding the retirement of “town hall pen pushers”, figures have revealed.

The figures present 254 authorities paid £5billion into their workers pensions final 12 months, which was a median of 23.5% of their council tax income.

Elliot Keck, head of campaigns at Taxpayers’ Alliance, stated: “Of every £4 now raised in council tax, £1 is spent on local government pensions.

“That’s money that won’t go towards fixing potholes, maintaining regular bin collections or keeping open the local library.

“Probably most significantly, it’s money that won’t go towards adult social care, one of the biggest and growing burdens on town hall finances.

“So when your council tax goes up, as it almost certainly will, just remember – £1 in £4 of those pounds is going straight into funding the retirement of town hall pen pushers. And under this Labour Government, expect this situation to only get worse.”

Local authorities will be capable of elevate core council tax by 3% and grownup social care principle by 2% in 2025-26 with out want for a neighborhood referendum.

The native authority that paid the one largest quantity into its workers pension final 12 months was Hampshire County Council. It contributed £281million, the equal of £4,658 for each member of workers — though this was to cowl three years of contributions.

Birmingham City Council, which declared efficient chapter final 12 months, paid the second-largest quantity at £141.7million.

The figures, obtained by way of Freedom of Information requests, imply the common family is successfully paying greater than £230 a 12 months instantly into council workers’s pensions.

The knowledge, first reported by The Times, confirmed that 14 councils paid greater than half of the cash they raised in council tax into their pensions.

Tom McPhail, a pensions professional at monetary adviser Lang Cat, stated: “In the context of today’s economy and the decline of private sector pensions, it is extremely difficult to justify the continued generosity of the local authority scheme.

“If you rewind 30 years, it would have been relatively unexceptional and similar to what was being offered by FTSE 100 companies.

“The difference is private sector employers became at first unwilling and then unable to meet the cost of such generous pensions. Yet the public sector and, in this case, the local authority scheme has just sailed blithely on regardless, relying on the captive funding of local authority taxpayers to subsidise their pensions.”

The Local Government Association, which represents councils, stated: “Local government workers provide hundreds of essential services every day. However, more than nine in 10 councils are experiencing staff recruitment and retention difficulties.

“The pension scheme can help encourage people to develop a career in local government. With pay often lower in local government than comparable private sector roles, the scheme can mitigate that while helping public sector workers avoid needing welfare benefits in retirement.

The spokesman added that the scheme was more “robust” than most different public sector pensions and that employer-contribution charges are usually decrease.