Cuts to redundancy pay – make your voice heard!

• Respond to the consultation online by 4 May here
• Sign the parliamentary petition against the changes here
• Come to the Mandate Meeting to decide what we do next: 1.30pm, Friday 6 May, in The Beaky

Thanks to all members who attended last week’s meetings on this subject in their own time.

On February 8, the government launched a public consultation on changes to public sector redundancy schemes, including the Civil Service Compensation Scheme.

The consultation proposes:

• Removing the requirement to make a voluntary redundancy offer before moving to compulsory redundancy
• Reducing the cap on voluntary exit payments to 18 months
• Reducing the cap on voluntary redundancy payments to 12 months
• Reducing the cap on compulsory redundancy payments to 9 months
• Scrapping the employer funded pension top up on early access to pension
• Increasing the age at which you can get early access to your pension from 60 to 62
• An absolute cap on pay-outs of either £95,000 or £80,000

Most lower grade civil servants won’t be affected by the absolute cap. However, the other proposals will drastically reduce the value of any pay-out.
So, for example, if you’ve had 40 years’ service and are made compulsorily redundant, you will get just 9 months’ pay. Half of what it was. And this has to last longer than before, as you now have to wait until you’re 62 instead of 60 to get early access to your pension.

The full consultation can be found on the Cabinet Office website. The consultation closes on 4 May 2016 and PCS will be making a submission on behalf of members.

Your response

The union is also encouraging members to respond individually to the consultation.

You can do this easily online here.

The online form is pre-populated. You can edit the responses if you wish, or send the standardised PCS response in a few clicks.

Please make sure you do this and encourage colleagues to do the same. The deadline is 4 May.

Campaigning

The National Executive Committee has agreed a campaign plan which involves political lobbying and a national petition as well as negotiations with the Cabinet Office.

Sign the petition here.

PCS’s Annual Conference will decide the next steps.

To decide how your branch delegates vote in that debate, please come to our Mandate Meeting. This will be at 1.30pm on Friday 6 May in The Beaky.