Your pensions are at risk - A message from Dave Prentis  - general secretary of UNISON

You may have seen some of the media coverage today of the Hutton report into public sector pensions. I have been interviewed on national BBC TV, Channel 4, ITV, the Today programme, 5 Live, many regional radio stations and by the newspapers.

I wanted to let you know personally how your pensions are being placed at risk by the government. The coalition government has shown contempt for Hutton.

Even before he finished his inquiry, the government decided to increase your contributions by more than 50%, at a time when your pay is being frozen, inflation is rising and your jobs are threatened with cuts and privatisation.

Additionally, the value of your pension has been reduced because the government changed the method of calculating annual inflation increases so your pension will increase by less than retail prices.

Hutton is recommending that you move from final salary scheme to career average and that you work longer. This will mean a lower pension because it is based on an average of how much you earn each year rather than on your final salary.

And the move to the lower CPI method of calculating inflation undermines the career average scheme, so everyone will be worse off.

You already have to pay more. I am convinced that the government will use this merely to cut costs and benefits. Whatever Hutton says about fairness in his report, it will be used by the government to cut the value of our pension schemes.

These changes are totally unnecessary. Our NHS scheme is cash rich and pays £2bn into the Treasury each year. There are no problems with the local government scheme that would justify this change.

We have already negotiated with the previous government new schemes that reflect people living longer and have made sure they are affordable and sustainable. Talks with the coalition government to protect and defend your pensions will be tough. And we need your support.

If you just do one thing, pass on this message to your work colleagues. If they are not in the union, ask them to join, so we have a stronger voice. You could get involved in activity within the branch or become a pension champion or write to your local MP to protest.

If we cannot make any progress in our talks with the government to get it to see sense, we will have to take very hard decisions on moving to an industrial action ballot.

You can keep informed of developments by looking at our webpage at unison.org.uk/protectourpensions.

But I believe that this issue is so important that I will personally let you know the outcome of the talks. Yours,

Dave Prentis
General Secretary