Fire service officers are lobbying MPs over the Government’s controversial pension reforms, which will see their pension contributions hit up to 16% by 2014. They face Extra payments of between £2,700 and £7,200 over the next three years alone.
The small but carefully targeted lobby will be taking place on Tuesday 31st January. The officers will be at Westminster from 11.30hrs, (contact details below).
The Government plans to increase pension contributions for fire service officers from the current 11% rising in stages to between 14.5% and 16% by 2014. That will mean extra contributions of between £2,700 for watch managers, £4,000 for fire station managers, £5,500 for a fire service group manager up to £7,200 for a fire service area manager over those three years.
From 2015 in the proposed new scheme the Government’s current proposals would mean:
Watch managers will pay an Extra £1,200 Every year
Station managers will be paying an Extra £1,900 Every year
Group managers will be paying an Extra £2,500 Every year
Area managers will be paying over £3,000 Extra Every year.
*all figures are for those with a ‘protected’ normal retirement age for those in the main Firefighters Pensions Scheme at today’s pay rates
Martin Pottinger FBU Officers National Committee Secretary said: “Everyone in the fire service faces being hit by these pension changes. But the higher up the chain of command the harder you are being hit.
“Like firefighters, officers are at the heart of our emergency response to all incidents. These include being on the scene of major high profile incidents or managing response from command centres.
“We’ve been stung by three years of a pay freeze with little prospect of an increase in the following two years. Officers are also being hit hard by cuts and taking on much more work to fill the gaps caused by the dangerous reduction in staff and standards.
“All of that is on top of a duty system, where we are working flexi-duty of between 72 and 78 hours a week already.
“We’re a small group representing thousands of fire officers who are all very angered by what is being proposed. We’re taking that message to MPs.”
