Blog: UNISON delivers stunning blow on exit payments

In a stunning setback for the Westminster government, it has had to abandon the law commonly known as the Exit Cap Regulations, which it only introduced on 4 November last year. In the minds of the government, the Daily Mail and other right-wing cheerleaders, these regulations were introduced to cut big pay outs to the highest paid public servants when they were made redundant. They set a ‘cap’ to pay outs of £95,000, which sounds a lot. Except that the way the government introduced the regulations meant that moderately paid staff could have been caught up by the law. In particular, it would have affected those in the local government pension scheme (LGPS) who were made redundant over the age of 55, as their benefits are payable immediately without any early retirement reduction. Employers have to cover additional money for the early retirement (so-called ‘pension strain costs’) and when these are added on top off any redundancy payments, this can quickly mount up and exceed the £95,000 cap. UNISON and other unions made a legal challenge that was due to be heard in a few weeks. However, just as we were finalising our evidence, the government backed down – sneaking out the news on a Friday evening, hoping to dampen down any press coverage! We spotted it and made sure general secretary Christina McAnea got the main coverage on the BBC and in the Guardian. The government says that it has disapplied the regulations, with a view to revoking them completely, because it ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article exit payments Jon Richards local government pensions Source Type: news