The Great British Rake-Off

Neil Record, Chairman of the IEA, has authored a report on the cost of public sector pensions, entitled the ‘Great British Rake-Off’.

In his research, Neil argues that the public has been misled over the true cost of public sector pensions. This, Neil claims, is predominantly due to the government operating two different interest rates to calculate the price of pensions in the public sector.

On the one hand, IAS19 interest rates, the nationally required formula for companies to calculate their pension expenditure, are used by the government to account for their pensions costs and liabilities, as ordered.

However, instead of releasing these results to inform the electorate of the cost of public sector pensions, the government then uses another interest rate, known as ‘SCAPE, to deduce how much the Treasury has charged public sector workers for their pensions.

Neil asserts that such a convoluted system confuses the public and allows large sums of money, £57 billion to be precise, to go unreported.

Download the report for free here: https://iea.org.uk/publications/how-government-has-misled-parliament-and-the-british-people-on-public-sector-pensions/