Street cleaners, school cooks and other dedicated public servants in Llanelli are set to benefit from a package of reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) announced by the UK Labour Government that will end discrimination and lead to more money in people’s pockets.
Mothers in Llanelli who are signed up to the LGPS will benefit from it becoming the first public service pension scheme to make all of maternity leave automatically pensionable. The reforms will also end the situation that meant opposite-sex couples did not earn survivor benefits, while tough new rules will remove pensions for serious offences by public servants.
The reforms come as part of Labour’s Plans to Make Work Pay that will back millions of workers by banning exploitative zero-hours contracts and ending ‘Fire and Rehire’.
Dame Nia Griffith, Labour MP for Llanelli, said:
“These steps will directly benefit many of my constituents in Llanelli working on the front line of public services in our local communities like schools, waste collection and street cleaning. I am pleased that these changes will bring an end to historic discrimination within the pension scheme and put more money in working people’s pockets. “
Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner said: “These historic changes will give hard working street cleaners, librarians, school cooks and other public servants the security that they deserve.
“This is a critical step in ending years of discrimination, backing our dedicated public servants and helping to Make Work Pay.”
Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, Jim McMahon OBE, said:
“Today’s changes will ensure more public servants get the benefits and security they deserve.
“Our reforms to Local Government Pension Schemes are bringing fairness and equality to workers, while boosting the potential of schemes to drive opportunity and growth in local communities.”
Background
- The scheme covers employees in England and Wales. It has 6.7 million members. They are predominantly part time, and low paid: 42 per cent of active members earn less than £15,000 and 59 per cent work part time.
- Latest estimates show 74 per cent of the scheme’s seven million members are women, and one of the most significant gaps in a woman’s pensionable service is often maternity leave. Making the final 13 weeks’ leave automatically pensionable will be a significant improvement and help close the gender pensions gap women face.
- Another issue the reforms aim to address is a disparity in survivor benefits – which are paid to the scheme’s members’ partners upon their death. Due to issues with the existing regulations, there have been instances where those in same-sex marriages and civil partnerships receive a more generous pension entitlement than those in opposite-sex marriages and partnerships. But under proposed reforms, all discrimination on the basis of the sex of those affected will be removed.
- In addition, an age cap currently in place that requires an LGPS member to have died before the age of 75 for their survivor to receive a lump sum payment will also be abolished.