A Bill to make major changes to public sector pensions was been passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly on 4 February 2014.
The Public Service Pensions Bill aims to move pensions to a model based on average earnings with the pension age linked to state pension age. This legislation is bad news for almost a quarter of a million public servants here. They’ve been paying more for their pensions and still have to pay more and now it’s been confirmed they’re going to have to work a lot longer to get a much reduced pension.
But it’s not just 250,000 public servants who are affected. They’re going to have to work at least an extra eight years – that’s a fifth of their working life! – and that’s going to deny young people employment opportunities by the fact that public servants are going to have to work a lot longer to get their pensions.
Chancellor George Osborne has announced that the state retirement age would go up to 68 sometime in the mid-2030s. The DUP’s Paul Girvan said that if the Stormont Assembly had not moved on public service pensions, Northern Ireland would have to foot the bill – which begs the question of what exactly is Mr Girvan and his friends in power actually doing? The Bill was passed by 77 votes to 13, in typical Stormont roll-over style.
The MLA’s below voted to extend your retirement age and reduce your pension. Check for your MLA. Did they vote to destroy your pension? Remember this when you’re voting next time round.
VOTED FOR
Mr Allister, Mr Anderson, Mr Beggs, Mr Boylan, Ms Boyle, Ms P Bradley, Mr Brady, Mr Buchanan, Mrs Cameron, Mr Clarke, Mrs Cochrane, Mr Craig, Mr Cree, Mr Dickson, Mrs Dobson, Mr Douglas, Mr Dunne, Mr Easton, Mr Elliott, Dr Farry, Ms Fearon, Mr Flanagan, Mr Ford, Mrs Foster, Mr Frew, Mr Girvan, Mr Givan, Mrs Hale, Mr Hamilton, Mr Hazzard, Mr Hilditch, Mr Humphrey, Mr Irwin, Mr G Kelly, Mr Kinahan, Ms Lo, Mr Lunn, Mr Lynch, Mr Lyttle, Mr McAleer, Mr McCallister, Mr F McCann, Ms J McCann, Mr McCartney, Mr McCausland, Mr B McCrea, Mr I McCrea, Mr McElduff, Ms McGahan, Mr M McGuinness, Mr D McIlveen, Miss M McIlveen, Mr McKay, Ms Maeve McLaughlin, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, Mr McQuillan, Mr Maskey, Mr Milne, Lord Morrow, Mr Moutray, Mr Nesbitt, Mr Newton, Ms Ní Chuilín, Mr O’Dowd, Mrs O’Neill, Mrs Overend, Mr Poots, Mr G Robinson, Mr P Robinson, Mr Ross, Ms Ruane, Mr Sheehan, Mr Spratt, Mr Storey, Mr Swann, Mr Weir, Mr Wells.
The MLAs below voted against.
VOTED AGAINST
Mr Agnew, Mr Attwood, Mr D Bradley, Mr Byrne, Mr Eastwood, Mrs D Kelly, Dr McDonnell, Mr McGlone, Mrs McKevitt, Mr McKinney, Mr A Maginness, Mr P Ramsey, Mr Rogers.
The real effects of these cuts can be seen with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service cutting 70,000 hours from front line cover. This will affect people across the North, but will particularly hit those in rural areas that have suffered from years of cuts backs including the closure of several hospitals.