Calls for major revamp of Scottish pensions

Reform Scotland have launched a call for the pensions system to be overhauled. Picture: TSPL

The group will set out its proposals for change in a report today, and its chairman Ben Thomson said: “The key problem with our pension structure is that those faithfully paying national insurance and those paying into a public sector occupational pension scheme have no ownership over their pension assets.

“They are not paying into a personal pot for themselves, they are paying for today’s pensioners and are dependent on an increasingly stretched next generation to pay for them.

“Inherent in the system is huge insecurity for today’s employees and an immoral burden on the next generation.

“Politicians have been engaged in a conspiracy of silence on this issue and they must now begin to be more open about the situation in which we find ourselves. People deserve to know where their money is going and what their future prospects are.

“The current coalition Government has merely moved the goalposts through its proposal to increase the pension age.

“Its proposals are the equivalent of treating a compound fracture with a sticking plaster.”

Pensions are uncertain because current workers, especially younger ones, have no idea at what age they will be able to collect a public sector pension or how much they will get, according to Reform Scotland.

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