Committee misses pension reform deadline

Reforms to public sector pensions in 2015 led to protests in St Peter Port

Guernsey's top political committee is under fire after missing a deadline to publish proposals for public sector pension reform.

Policy and Resources (P&R) was given until October to present plans for a debate on a defined contribution pension scheme for public sector staff, when the States voted for it in February 2023.

John Moulton, from the Guernsey Policy and Economic Group (GPEG), criticised P&R's lack of action and said reform was seen as "too difficult" by deputies.

P&R did not respond to the criticism, but said the proposals have not been published as they "haven't been finished".

Current scheme 'expensive'

When asked whether the committee was still pursuing plans for a defined contribution scheme, P&R did not answer.

For the matter to be debated in October, the plans would have had to have been submitted earlier this month.

An update on where the investigation into whether a defined contribution scheme should be introduced is set to be published in October, alongside the latest actuarial valuation of the current public sector pension scheme.

Mr Moulton said the current scheme was "expensive", "very generous" and "far better than the private sector".

He said: "This isn't the first deadline they've missed on this, they've promised updated actuarial valuations too and when they have delivered, they've been late."

He warned the civil service in Guernsey was "quite capable of going on strike" over pension reform and said "most deputies are happy for it to be tucked to one side and let the next house deal with it".

What is a defined contribution pension scheme?

A defined contribution pension scheme consists of money paid by an employee, their employer and tax relief from governmemnt.

While a defined benefit scheme, which is currently the most used scheme by States of Guernsey staff, means members are entitled to a particular level of benefit depending on their length of service and the level of their salary when they retire.

Teaching unions have warned changing the public sector pension scheme would be seriously damaging to recruitment and retention of staff

Meetings about changing public sector pensions to a defined contribution scheme started under the last P&R committee led by Deputy Peter Ferbrache, but since they were voted out of office Wayne Bates from the NASUWT has said there have not been any discussions.

He warned the States against making further changes to staff pensions.

"No public sector workforce has this in the British Isles and if it changes it means people in Guernsey would have a vastly inferior pension scheme to counterparts in the UK.

"The main source of recruits for education and health is the United Kingdom and you're going to find it extremely hard to recruit if your pension scheme is vastly inferior. "

Guernsey's pension age is set to rise to 70 by 2050.

Guernsey's Chamber of Commerce has called for the States of Guernsey to reform the public sector pension scheme.

It commented when proposals for tax reform were set to be debated that it wanted to see "a commitment to civil service pension savings".