Warwick Union criticises staff pension proposals

Warwick University criticised proposed changes to pension plans for UK university staff in a statement released on Friday.

Plans to reform the principal pension scheme for universities’ staff were recently laid out by Universities UK (UUK), a lobby group for over 100 UK universities. Reforms involved axing the scheme’s ‘final salary’ section in light of its current deficit, estimated at £8 billion.

Warwick’s branch of the University College Union (UCU) raised concerns with the lack of alternatives provided by UUK, and with the “confusing” set-up of new proposals, in a written statement provided from feedback from Warwick staff.

The union branch said that forecasts on which the new pension scheme was based were “unnecessarily pessimistic”, fuelling harsher cuts than needed in proposed pension benefits.

Under new proposals, members of the scheme were to continue to receive benefits based on the value of their salary up to the proposed threshold of £50,000 a year, provided that the cost was affordable for employers.

Benefits on earnings above the proposed threshold however, were to be provided in a new defined contribution section.

Warwick University’s UCU branch called for UUK to provide “some alternative scenarios” before negotiating on a final scheme.

The union warned that changes proposed to the pension scheme risked creating a two-tier system penalising staff at older universities, who are the scheme’s primary subscribers, including some of the UK’s most highly ranked.