Submitted by SWFBU on
TO: ALL MEMBERS
Dear Brother/Sister,
2012 - FURTHER YOUGOV ONLINE SURVEY – FBU MEMBERS’ ATTITUDE TO PENSION CHANGES
What is the purpose of this survey?
In May 2011 the FBU commissioned YouGov to run an online survey to gather evidence from FBU members about their attitude to the Government’s proposed changes to the firefighters’ pension schemes. The results of this survey provided the union with a great deal of evidence, which has been used to challenge the government over their proposals.
In April 2012 the government imposed an employee contribution increase (which represented 50% of their initial proposal) and agreed that they would review the effects of the first year contribution increases before making any decision on any further increases. Although any increase in employee contribution is unwelcomed and completely unjustified, it is notable that the Firefighters Pension Schemes were the only unfunded public service scheme which did not suffer the full increase. This was a direct result of the work done by the FBU and the evidence that the YouGov survey allowed us to build.
The challenge on pensions is far from over and we are facing a proposal to increase the employee contributions again in April 2013 and an imposed Firefighter Scheme in 2015. This new scheme would include an increase to normal pension age for many FBU members. Government is currently considering a public service pensions Bill which proposes several detrimental changes to the fire service pension schemes.
A small number of members have already had an opportunity to attend forums on pensions initiated by central government. These were designed to gauge the attitude of pension scheme members towards these proposals. You will also be aware that the FBU is currently submitting evidence to a Normal Pension Age review which is due to report its findings by the end of 2012.
The FBU remains totally committed to maintaining quality pension schemes for all our members and has been firm in its position that many of the suggestions in the Hutton Report and in the Government’s proposals are unacceptable, unsustainable and unfair.
We have commissioned a further survey which will allow you to express your views on what your pension scheme means to you and how you may react to the proposed changes. It is simple to access online and it will only take a few minutes of your time to complete.
How do I take part?
You can type in this URL address www.yougov.co.uk/fbu-pensionssurvey or go onto the FBU website www.fbu.org.uk where you will be directed to it from the homepage.
It takes a couple of minutes, the questions are straight forward and are designed around your particular pension scheme whether you are in the 1992 Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (FPS), the 2006 New Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (NFPS) or the Local Government Pension Scheme.
It is very important that you take part and that you give your considered responses to the survey.
Why use YouGov?
YouGov is a respected independent polling organisation and the information we obtain from this survey can be used to highlight our members’ attitudes without giving anyone the opportunity to say it is biased or distorted.
Please only fill in the survey once and do not use the same computer as any colleagues as the survey is designed to highlight repeat responses from one source. (I.e. try to avoid using any work computers)
The survey will be live from midday 29 October 2012 and close at midday 16 November 2012 and you will get several reminders to take part.
Why should I bother?
Your views are extremely important to us and if we are to conduct an effective campaign against these proposed changes we need to understand the strength of feeling of all members and use any information we gather to formulate a strategy.
There may be a particular proposal that you are strongly opposed to and this may even mean you have to consider your continued membership of your current scheme. If this is so we need to know.
The information that was gathered from last year’s survey was crucial to developing our evidence and our arguments. The FBU is the only organisation in the fire service that is submitting evidence of this detail and quality. We have a big challenge ahead of us but the reviews give us an opportunity to make sure that evidence such as that gathered using these surveys is taken into consideration.
Around 8000 FBU members took part in the survey last year – we need to ensure that as many members as possible fill in the survey and highlight their feelings.
What happens with the information?
Part of the work YouGov are undertaking is to gather the information and produce a report on FBU members’ attitudes towards the proposals for future pension changes. This report will be an extremely valuable tool that we can use to defend the future pension provisions of its members.
This is only one step in any campaign but it is a vital step and one that you need to take part in – please take part and make your views heard.
Please take a few minutes of your time to complete this survey – this is a chance to highlight your feelings towards the Government’s future plans for your pension scheme.
Best wishes.
Yours fraternally
MATT WRACK
General Secretary
