PENSIONS

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Pensioners are getting an improvement in their meals on wheels service but the cost has increased by 78%. Although a number of them are now being given a hot meal every day of the week, and the choice from a menu, the price has increased from £1.40 to £2.50. More than 400 people in Derby use meals on wheels and, so far, about 15 people have been introduced to the new service. The remaining 385 can apply to have it but first must be reassessed by social services.

Pensioners can choose each day which dish they would like from a menu of four hot meals, including a vegetarian choice, and two puddings. Previously, they could have only one hot meal on any two days between Monday and Sunday. Frozen meals were provided the rest of the time. A council spokeswoman said price rise would bring in an extra £40,000 a year that would be ploughed back into adult social services. She could not say how or what services could be improved. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Mar/07)

A £620m black hole has opened up in the main Derbyshire council employees' pension fund, and tax payers will have to foot some of the bill. Figures obtained by the Evening Telegraph show that the Derbyshire Pension Fund had £1.023bn on March 31, 2003 - £620m short of its target amount. The pension is paid into by 29,800 employees from Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council and the county's eight district and borough councils.

On March 31, there were 17,000 pensioners claiming from the fund, plus 8,500 deferred pensioners, who have left local government and will draw a pension once they reach 60 or 65. As employers, the councils are increasing their contributions to make up the shortfall, some of which will come from the Government and business rates. But tax payers will also have to help meet the gap through increased council tax bills. The Derbyshire Pension Fund, managed by the county council, is valued every three years by an actuary in line with Local Government Pension Scheme regulations.

The last complete valuation was on March 31, 2001. Then, the fund's total assets - the amount in the fund - were £1.245bn. Its total liabilities - what it can expect to have to pay out - were £1.415bn. The liabilities are assessed by actuaries, financial statisticians who take into account workers' ages, gender, length of service and other factors. Steps were put in place to try to meet the 12% gap by increasing council contributions. But the latest figures show that there is still a shortage and total liabilities have grown to more than £1.6bn.

Councillor John Powell, deputy leader of the county council, said that the majority of council pension funds in the UK were affected in this way by the regulations, which measure a fund by comparing its current status with a "snapshot" taken on one specific day. The next "snapshot" and full valuation of the Derbyshire Pension Fund will be on March 31, 2004. Mr Powell said, "It is important to emphasise that the benefits for contributors and pensioners are not at risk. Disappointing stock market returns over the last two to three years have certainly had a detrimental effect on asset values."

Council tax payers have bailed out their local authority's poor pension fund performance in the past. Mr Powell said, "Arising from the valuation of the fund in March, 2001, the county council's employers' contribution for the current financial year increased by £1.7m, of which £500,000 came from council tax." One county council employee said, "What they're planning seems the fairest way forward. It's better for the employers' contributions to go up." The fund does not include the county's teachers, who have their own pension scheme.

Rolls-Royce has a £1.1bn black hole in its pension fund and expects its employees, not taxpayers, to fill it. How is the council different?

Millions of former Soviet citizens who can come to Britain from May 1 2004 will qualify for UK pensions whether or not they have paid any tax or National Insurance contributions. There was anger as it emerged the deal is worth £105.45 a week for all who apply, nearly £26 MORE than the single state pension. The benefit beano is open to people in ten eastern European states with 73million people. The bill could run into billions at UK taxpayers’ expense, before housing and health costs. Britain and Ireland are two EU countries offering full access rights to the ten nations when the Union expands to 25 members but Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria and others have BANNED benefits for seven years.

The Department of Work and Pensions confirmed that any pensioner arriving in Britain legally with no income is entitled to income support. That amounts to £105.45 per person and £160.95 for a couple. The state pension, available to those who have paid tax and NICs all their lives, is £79.60, or £127.25 per couple. Robert Whelan, of the Civitas think tank, said the offer puts Britain’s whole system of contributory rights at risk. He said, “This is a terrible scandal. It puts people who have paid all their lives in tax and NICs on the same level as people who have contributed nothing. It is a mistaken policy which will fuel resentment. This will increase the numbers wanting to come here.” Ruth Lea, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said, “This makes a mockery of the system.”

The basic state pension is to rise to £82.05 a week, as the Government claims "remarkable strides" in tackling poverty among the elderly. The annual uprating in line with inflation will see the single person's payment go up £2.45 from April 2005. A couple's pension will rise by nearly £4 to £131.20. Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson told MPs 1.8million pensioners had been lifted out of "absolute poverty" since 1997.

He said, "We have made remarkable strides in tackling the pernicious pensioner poverty which we inherited." Its eradication would remain a priority. Means-tested pension credit, linked to average earnings, will give a single pensioner at least £109.45 a week and a couple £167.05. Mr Johnson said more than 3.1million pensioners now claim the payment. Take-up for poorer OAPs is more than 80%. Overall, he added, the average pensioner household would be £1,350 a year better off in 2005/6 that under the 1997 system. (Source: Daily Mirror)

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