National Care Service Campaign
Kick Profit Out of Care/Pensions
National Care Service Bill
What does this mean for Social Work and Social Care
The Scottish Government is putting a Bill through Parliament to set up a National Care Service (NCS), the bill leaves profiteering at the heart of care, and will outsource a huge range of functions; all of social work and social care out of councils, and an unknown number of responsibilities out of the NHS. This threatens the employment and pensions of tens of thousands of workers, and meaning a huge sum of money will be spent on structural change rather than on improving services. Up to 75,000 council jobs in Social work and Social care could transfer from councils.
check UNISON’s campaign page for updates
write to your MSP by clicking on the link
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75,000 care workers pensions in jeopardy! Take Action
The proposals for a National Care Service (NCS) are still staggering on, despite sharp criticism from many stakeholders, including UNISON. A huge unanswered question for the 75,000 staff who may be affected is “what will happen to may pension?” The Scottish Government envisage the NCS as a set of Care Boards overseen by government Ministers, which will buy in care services from public, private and third sector providers. This could mean that many existing staff -potentially 75,000 –might transfer to private or not-for-profit care companies and it’s not clear what will happen to their pensions.The Government have brought in private consultant Deloitte to advise them on pension issues, which is a concern in itself. The NCS Bill has been delayed, but MSPs may still be deciding on the fate of tens of thousands of workers without a clear idea what this will mean for their retirement.The potential disruption has also raised serious concerns about the stability of the pension funds themselves, if many staff pull out (or are pulled out).
What can you do ? Contact your MSP by clicking on the link above or copy and paste to your browser.
Fight to defend decent pensions!
The alert has been raised that more employers are seeking to pull out of the LGPS and other Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes. Three employers have been highlighted in the higher education sector (Dundee, Abertay, and Robert Gordon), and three in the CVS sector -River Clyde Homes, Autism Scotland and Citizens and Rights Fife (CARF). To their credit CARF pulled back from changes, and UNISON members in Dundee put up a terrific fight to minimise the damage, but elsewhere schemes are being downgraded; replaced with inferior “Defined Contribution” (DC) schemes, or closed to new members.Apart from making big savings in employer pension contributions, one of the top excuses for cutting members benefits is to “reduce risk” for employers. Replacing a DB scheme with a DC one does this, as it moves the risk from employer to employee by removing any guarantee of a decent pension
