A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States

A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States PDF Author: Robert Louis Clark
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812237146
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
From the Wharton School, offering a comprehensive assessment of the political and financial dimensions of public-sector pensions from the colonial period until the emergence of modern retirement plans in the twentieth century.

A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States

A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States PDF Author: Robert Louis Clark
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812237146
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
From the Wharton School, offering a comprehensive assessment of the political and financial dimensions of public-sector pensions from the colonial period until the emergence of modern retirement plans in the twentieth century.

Pensions in the Public Sector

Pensions in the Public Sector PDF Author: Olivia S. Mitchell
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812235784
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 692

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Book Description
From the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School, this book explores the diversity of governmental pension plans and investigates how these financial institutions must change in years to come.

The cost of public service pensions

The cost of public service pensions PDF Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102963571
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
There has been much public discussion about the affordability of public service pensions. This National Audit Office report aims to bring greater transparency to, and understanding of, the cash costs involved. Total payments to more than 2 million pensioners in the UK's four largest pay-as-you-go pension schemes (also known as unfunded schemes - where current employee and employer contributions are used to pay current pensions) were £19.3 billion in 2008-09, a real terms increase of 38 per cent since 1999-2000. This is driven by more employees retiring each year, which is a substantially more significant factor than longer lifespans. Employee contributions of £4.4 billion reduced the taxpayer's share of costs to £14.9 billion in 2008-09. The employee element grew by 56 per cent in real terms since 1999-2000 because staff numbers and contribution rates have increased. The report also looks at projections of payments across all UK public sector pay-as-you-go pension schemes over the next fifty years. Expressed in terms of constant 2008-09 prices, the Government Actuary's Department projects total payments rising to over £79 billion a year by 2059-60. The Treasury has a reasonable framework in place for assessing future costs and has undertaken some analysis on the sensitivity of projections to changes in key assumptions. The Treasury has not undertaken any systematic analysis of the effects of changing its assumption that there will be zero public service headcount growth, despite the existence of several factors that could put upwards pressure on staff numbers in the long term.

Sir Humphrey's Legacy

Sir Humphrey's Legacy PDF Author: Neil Record
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Whilst private sector pension schemes have been closing down rapidly in the last few years, public sector employees continue to enjoy gold plated benefits. In addition, rates of ill health retirement in public sector pension schemes are extremely high. Proposed reforms to public sector schemes will make little difference to the benefits available to new employees and no difference at all to benefits of existing employees.Private sector taxpayers have to meet the cost of public sector pensions, so how has this divide between the standard of private and public sector pensions arisen? Part of the answer lies in the fact that the costs of public sector schemes are not properly accounted for.In this monograph, Neil Record estimates that public sector pension liabilities are about pound;1 trillion - but the government publishes estimates of the liabilities of only half this level. The author argues that nothing can be done to deal with the liability accrued so far, but that action can be taken to make costs transparent in the future. If costs are made transparent we can start to change the nature of public sector schemes, to the benefit of workers and taxpayers alike.Further reform proposals are discussed by commentators Philip Booth and Nick Silver.This is a valuable contribution to a debate which can no longer be postponed. David Laws MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary.

Shrouded Costs of Government

Shrouded Costs of Government PDF Author: Edward Ludwig Glaeser
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Why are public-sector workers so heavily compensated with pensions and other non-pecuniary benefits? In this paper, we present a political economy model of shrouded compensation in which politicians compete for taxpayers' and public employees' votes by promising compensation packages, but some voters cannot evaluate every aspect of compensation. If pension packages are "shrouded," meaning that public-sector workers better understand their value than ordinary taxpayers, then compensation will be inefficiently back-loaded. In equilibrium, the welfare of public-sector workers could be improved, holding total public sector costs constant, if they received higher wages and lower pensions. Central control over dispersed municipal pensions has two offsetting effects on pension generosity: more state-level media attention helps taxpayers better understand pension costs, which reduces pension generosity; but a larger share of public sector workers will live within the jurisdiction, which increases pension generosity. We discuss pension arrangements in two decentralized states (California and Pennsylvania) and two centralized states (Massachusetts and Ohio) and find that in these cases, centralization appears to have modestly reduced pension arrangements; but, as the model suggests, this finding is unlikely to be universal.

Pension Ponzi

Pension Ponzi PDF Author: Bill Tufts
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118098730
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
The vast majority of Canadians are blissfully unaware that every man, woman and child in Canada now owes a $35,000 share of government debt and must pay this back, with interest! Make no mistake, this debt will change our country and affect every single Canadian in the decades to come. You may think you have planned for your retirement and are safe, but the government must find a way to recover this borrowed money, and they can only do that by raising your taxes and reducing your hard-earned benefits. How did this debt come about, and why can't we simply pay it off? Pension Ponzi lays the blame squarely at the feet of the politicians who refused to stand up to Canada's public sector unions. The fact is Canada's public sector, which accounts for 20% of the workforce, has been grossly overpaid relative to their counterparts in the private sector with cushy pensions paid for with your taxes and new debt. There is no denying that the country does not have the financial resources to ensure that the next generation of Canadians will have the same standard of living as the ones before it-or to support our growing seniors population. Meeting our public sector pension obligations will break the current social safety net that is a pillar of the Canadian way. Can you escape this bleak future? Can you afford to live longer? Nationally-recognized pension expert Bill Tufts and award-winning journalist Lee Fairbanks explore how this catastrophe came about and then suggest ways that government can fix what's broken, and how you as an individual can protect yourself from the financial calamity that is about to engulf Canada.

Independent Public Service Pensions Commission

Independent Public Service Pensions Commission PDF Author: Malcolm McIntosh
Publisher: Stationery Office/Tso
ISBN: 9780108509414
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Produced by the Independent Public Services Pensions Commission, this interim report, under the chairmanship of Lord Hutton, looks at the future of public service pensions. The report asks are public service pensions on a fair and sustainable footing and offering the best possible value for money to the taxpayer? Also, do they provide an adequate retirement income for public service employees, which includes people employed in the civil service and local government? The report argues that the present situation is not tenable and that a more prudent approach is needed to meet the cost of public service pensions. One proposal is that there should be an increase in pension contributions for public service employees. A final report, to be produced in 2011, will look at a wider range of radical solutions that might represent a better balance between the need for fairness between taxpayers and scheme members and also allowing for the increase in life expectancy. The report is divided into nine chapters, with nine annexes.

Public service pensions

Public service pensions PDF Author: Great BritainH.M. Treasury
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101821421
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
In this paper the Government sets out its preferred scheme design for public service pensions. It is built on the foundations laid by Lord Hutton in his report (Independent Public Service Pensions Commission: final report, 2011, ISBN 9780108510410). The cost of public service pensions paid out has risen by over a third over the last ten years to £32 billion a year. Reforms to date have been insufficient to reverse the increase in costs of public service schemes from rising longevity. The Government's offer is: benefits already earned are protected; for those in final salary schemes, those past benefits will be linked to their final salary when they leave the scheme or retire; public service workers with ten years or less to their current pension age, will see no change in when they can retire; Government will continue to pay more overall toward pension benefits than the workforce. The scheme design will ensure: guaranteed, index-linked pension benefits on retirement; an accrual rate of 1/60ths and earnings indexation for benefits while still working in the public service; fairer distribution of benefits across the workforce; and, that most low and middle earners working a full career will receive pension benefits at least as good as they get now. But in return, the Government is asking public service workers to pay more towards their pensions and work a bit longer. The Government's offer is conditional on the trades unions and the Government reaching agreement on the reforms.

Evaluating Public-Sector Pensions

Evaluating Public-Sector Pensions PDF Author: Malcolm P. Hamilton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description


Evaluating Public-sector Pensions

Evaluating Public-sector Pensions PDF Author: Malcolm Hamilton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780888069245
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 21

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Book Description
In the real world guarantees are expensive. Public-sector accounting standards that suggest otherwise in the case of pensions mislead taxpayers, politicians and senior public servants about the cost of these guarantees and the cost of the pension plans providing them.