Superannuation Bill

Memorandum submitted by Robin Myerscough (SU 26)

1. My name is Robin Myerscough and I am a Civil Servant working at the Government Office for the North East, part of the Government Office network which is to be abolished "In Principle" as revealed by the Secretary of State Eric Pickles to the house several weeks ago.

2. I began my career 11 years ago with the Civil Service, and in that time I have worked with a variety of teams within the Government Office Network.  Throughout that time I have improved my skills and have spent over four years on temporary promotion, including a period where I had a temporary promotion two grades above my substantive grade of Administration Officer (AO).

3. In the run up to the election David Cameron stated that over 63% of jobs in the North East are public sector jobs.  Given the impending spending review this is likely to decimate employment within the region and would make it extremely difficult to find employment given this dependency.

4. The Superannuation Bill which is about to go through Parliament would have a major impact on myself and my family.  Under the current redundancy terms that the Coalition Government are wanting to impose on the Civil Service I would be roughly be entitled to a redundancy payout of approx £43,000 pounds based on my highest salary in the last three years (which was while working on temporary promotion as a Higher Executive Officer).  If the redundancy payout is capped at a year’s salary I would be worse off by over twenty thousand pounds. This would be the best case scenario as I do not know under the revised terms if my temporary promotion would be taken into consideration when calculating revised redundancy terms. I could be considerably worse off if this was the case.

5. I understand that the company is facing difficult economic times but I feel that punishing loyal public servants and effectively changing our terms and conditions of our contracts retroactively is disturbing and I would suggest, open to a legal challenge.

6. As the Government Office network is being abolished "in principle" with the final decision due in the Spending Review in October, this means that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government can wait for this Bill to go through the House before announcing officially that the Government Office Network is to close, thereby making sure that Government Office staff would only be entitled to the revised terms as laid out in the Superannuation Bill.

7. If the Government wishes to amend Civil Service Redundancy payments then it should commence from the moment the Bill enters the statute book and should not be used retroactively to punish hard working and committed civil servants who have worked tirelessly to support the public and the government of the day.

September 2010