Budget 2012: Changes to Pensions, Age Related Allowances, Royal Mail Pension Plan, State Retirement Age, Pension Infrastructure Platform

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon George Osborne MP announced the 2012 Budget today, I thought I’d better write a blog post with the potted highlights, although obviously for more detail you can watch his long speech, check out what’s published on the Treasury’s website (and is the main source for what is […]

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon George Osborne MP announced the 2012 Budget today, I thought I’d better write a blog post with the potted highlights, although obviously for more detail you can watch his long speech, check out what’s published on the Treasury’s website (and is the main source for what is below) or have a read through the extensive media coverage.

I’ll start with pensions.

Pensions

(a) as average lifespan increases the State Pension Age will go up and

(b) the State Pension will be reformed into a single tier pension for those not currently in receipt of a State Pension but not until the next Parliament (at least 2015).

The latter means such changes don’t affect those currently in receipt of a pension, or those receiving one before the changes come into effect.

Age Related Allowances change affecting those of pensionable age

These allowances affect income tax calculations for pensioners. This will be £10,500 and £10,600 for 2012-2013, with changes in future years from 2013 onwards.

A Pension Infrastructure Platform will be set up to allow pension funds to invest in UK infrastructure.

The Royal Mail Pension Plan is being transferred to the public sector, assuming the government gets approval.

There will be reform of public sector pensions and the age at which you can retire will be increased to bring it in line with increases in State Retirement Age. This and other reforms will have to be agreed with the public sector unions.

The deficit in the Royal Mail pension scheme will be addressed if the government gets State Aid approval. The government will (if they get approval) sell off the non-gilt assets of the pension scheme and take on board the liabilities.

Licensing, Health & Safety and General Purposes Committee (Wirral Council) Part 1 19/3/2012 Agenda items 1(Declarations of Interest), 2 (Minutes), 3 (Sex Establishment fees) & 5 (Local Election fees 2012/2013)

Well on the 19th March 2012, I attended the well-attended Licensing, Health & Safety & General Purposes Committee in Committee Room 1. There were the usual people there such as taxi drivers and union reps and a few new faces from Merseytravel, as well as the committee of councillors and officers.

The committee composed of the following councillors (Cllr Ian Lewis (Conservative) was absent):-

Labour (5)
Cllr Bill Davies (Chair)
Cllr Patricia Glasman
Cllr Chris Jones
Cllr Steve Niblock
Cllr Irene Williams

Conservative (3)
Cllr Sue Taylor (Conservative spokesperson)
Cllr Kate Wood
Cllr Tom Anderson

Liberal Democrats (1)
Cllr Bob Wilkins (Lib Dem spokesperson)

The following Wirral Council officers were there to support the committee:-
Committee clerk: Anne Beauchamp
Legal adviser: Mr. Ken Abraham
Others: Margaret O’Donnell, Mr. Robert Beresford + others I don’t know the name of

The meeting started late with the Chair apologising for the wait as they were waiting for their legal team in regards to item 3 (Proposed election fees 2012/2013). He apologised again for the wait and said they would skip item 3 until Surjit Tour arrived.

He started the meeting with item 1 and asked for any declarations of interest.

Cllr Sue Taylor (Conservative spokesperson) apologised for Cllr Ian Lewis who was not present.

No declarations of interest were made, so they moved to item 2, which was the minutes of the last meeting.

Cllr Steve Niblock objected to the list of people attending the last meeting as he had not been at the last meeting due to being at the Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting which was also held on the 8th March.

He said he couldn’t be in two places at the same time, so he had sent Cllr Salter in his place as deputy. Therefore he asked for the minutes to be changed and his name replaced with Cllr Salter. The Chair said they would make sure it was changed. With the amendment to the minutes, the minutes (item 2) were agreed and the Committee skipped item 3 to item 4 (Hackney Carriage Vehicle Licences).

The Chair explained they would also skip item 4 and deal with it at the end.

At this point a councillor’s mobile phone started ringing and the Committee moved to item 5 sex establishment fees. Margaret O’Donnell introduced this report about the licensing of sex establishments and referred to various pieces of legislation including section 27 of the “Police and Crime Act 2009”, although she actually meant the Policing and Crime Act 2009. She asked the Committee to consider what fees should be charged by Wirral Council for receiving applications. She suggested £1,200 per an application based on an estimate of what costs would be incurred.

At this point 6.15pm Surjit Tour arrived fifteen minutes late and sat down.

Cllr Niblock asked if the £1,200 was just for a new one or the same for a renewal too?

Margaret replied that yes, she suggested £1,200 for both.

Item 5 was agreed that Wirral Council would charge £1,200 for new applications and £1,200 for renewals of sex establishment licences.

The Chair asked Surjit Tour to explain to the meeting his report,item 3 (proposed election fees for 2012/2013).

Surjit Tour asked the Chair if he wanted him to go ahead so they could agree the suggestions? The Chair agreed. Surjit Tour apologised for being late, he had thought the meeting started at 6.15pm, Ed – it was supposed to start at 6.00pm, he apologised again for his late arrival.

He explained that the election fees were proposed fees and were payments made to staff by the Returning Officer. There was no specific guidance or formula used as this was a local issue. According to scientists, the results of the study indicate that at https://summitps.org/accutane-isotretinoin/ accutane isotretinoin creates the necessary conditions for useful populations of Propionibacteria and other bacteria that reduce the likelihood of acne. The way it had previously been arrived at by the previous Chief Executive/Returning Office Steve Maddox was a yearly increase to take into account inflation. The increase for this year was therefore 3.9%, however it was calculated on the basis of individual wards. Neighbouring authorities fees were included in the report for comparison.

The Merseyside Electoral Administration team also discussed such matters at a meeting. However because of difficulties facing staff he proposed the following changes to those figures in the report.

(a) polling station inspector increased from £190 to £565.

(b) Deputy Returning Officer fee increased from a flat fee of £459.42 (per ward)  to 50% of the Returning Officer’s fee (£5,127.98 * 50%) = £2,563.99 (per ward)

The Chair thanked him for the report. The committee agreed the recommendations and changes. He thanked Surjit Tour again.

Another mistake by Wirral Council who can’t get a web address right

Reading through a Wirral Council press release about solar energy grants, I noticed a link to the Energy Saving Trust website.

However Wirral Council have got the link wrong, instead of the link being to http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/ they put http://www.energysavingtrust.org (which incidentally is a totally different website owned by someone else).

Does anybody fact-check these press releases before publishing them? When will Wirral Council come into the 21st-century and actually learn about new-fangled things like writing a web address correctly, or even proofreading?

Hopefully I’ll embarrass them into correcting the mistake… mind you with some councillors and some officers similarly puzzled about these new-fangled concepts such as writing which has only been around for about 5,500 years I realise at Wirral Council they class technology as something they rely on their advisers to advise them about.

It reminds me of the time a councillor said they couldn’t print something because they couldn’t follow (or get in touch with) Wirral Council’s tech support?

So why not just ask another councillor, or your leader’s secretary, your research assistant or your office manager to do it then? Or is managing people somehow rocket-science to some councillors just looking for excuses for their own ineptitude or lack of skills?

Planning Applications decided (Bidston & St. James ward) APP/12/00032, 16 Hartnup Way & APP/12/00042, Price Street

Planning applications decided involving Hartnup way and a school in Price Street.

If you have come to this page looking for details of a planning application for Target Road, Heswall please follow this link.

There have been two planning applications decided recently, and are both listed below. Both were approved.

Application No.: APP/12/00032

Application Type: Full Planning Permission
Decision Level: Delegated
Ward: Bidston and St James
Decision Date: 24/02/2012

Decision: Approve
Case Officer: Mr M Rushton
Applicant: Mr Gareth Walsh

Agent:
Location: 16 Hartnup Way, Prenton, Wirral, CH43 7ND
Proposal: Retrospective application for retention of alterations to the levels of the rear garden, including
dwarf retaining wall.

————————————————————————————————————————————-

Application No.: APP/12/00042 Application Type: Full Planning Permission
Decision Level: Delegated
Ward: Bidston and St James
Decision Date: 06/03/2012 Decision: Approve
Case Officer: Miss S McIlroy
Applicant:

Agent: Aedas Building Consultancy
Location: Our Lady and St Edwards RC Aided Primary School, PRICE STREET, BIRKENHEAD, CH41 8DU
Proposal: Single storey extension to rear of school to create new library, practical, storage and withdrawal
areas.

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 15th March 2012 Report on meeting Part 1

Well as promised in a previous post here’s a writeup of part of last Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, well at least some highlights.

Item 8 (Chief Executives Office) along with its its appendix have been deferred to a future meeting.

Cllr Jeff Green wanted to waive call-in on item 27 regarding St. Anselms College but was given legal advice by Surjit Tour that he couldn’t because the officers who have to agree to it to waive call-in weren’t present.

The nomination for Mayor and Deputy Mayor for 2012/2013 were as follows:-

Mayor: Cllr Gerry Ellis

Deputy Mayor: Cllr Dave Mitchell

Bill Norman (Director of Law, HR and Asset Management), Ian Coleman (Director of Finance) and Jim Wilkie (Chief Executive) were all absent from the Cabinet meeting.

Err, let’s see, Craig Manning has written about item 16 for the Wirral Globe which can be read online. Certainly Cllr Jeff Green wasn’t happy with the news, but Social Services has a reputation for overspending by £millions each year.