Public Pensions a "ticking time bomb"

Free money for everyone!
Maybe I missed something, but I tend to doubt that there is unlimited "free" money laying around to fund everything under the sun.

This sounds familiar . . . .
"The deficit remains a ticking time bomb that is being left for future generations of taxpayers to deal with."

- - - - Matthew Sinclair, a director of the UK Taxpayers’ Alliance

 .

UK Public employee pension deficit of £54 Billion

• £1 in every £5 of council tax money goes to fund public employee pensions.

Tell me.  Where is it written that government employees can retire and collect unlimited public pension money for 20, 30 or even 40 years until they die?  The math just does not add up.

The U.S. is going broke with this system. But somehow it makes me feel better watching other nations going broke too.

Cities in the United Kingdom are facing the same crisis as those in the U.S.  Politicians sold their soul, and the wallets of the taxpayer, to public employee labor unions.

Now Britain is sitting on ‘a ticking time bomb’ created by the generous pensions enjoyed by council workers.

SHOCK  -  You can't spend money you
do not have.

The shocking analysis of a report reveals councils across the UK have a pensions deficit of £54 Billion – amid warnings it could get even bigger.

Experts warn council tax bills will have to rise sharply in the future to pay for pensions paid to council workers, from bin men to town hall staff reports the UK Daily Mail.

The equivalent of around £1 in every £5 of council tax is already spent on local authorities’ contributions to their workers’ pension scheme, according to the report by campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

The average pension paid to a council worker is around £4,200 a year, which covers all council workers, many of whom are on very low pay. But more than 2,700 scoop pensions worth at least £37,000 a year and more than 35,000 get at least £17,000 a year, according to official figures.

By comparison, most private sector workers do not have a pension – and it is worth only £1,400 a year to those who do.

The biggest culprit is Birmingham City Council, with a deficit of £1.33 billion – equal to nearly £1,300 for every resident. Overall, the report says there are 165 local authorities with a deficit of more than £100million.

Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at financial advisers Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Local authorities are going to come under pressure to raise council tax to fund these pensions.'

‘They are going to have to go to taxpayers, who do not have good pensions of their own, to meet their very generous pension promises. That is not going to go down well with people.’

(UK Daily Mail)