Superannuation Bill

Memorandum from Barry McCann (SU 46)

1.1 Submitted by: Barry McCann, husband of a Big Lottery Fund Employee working under threat of redundancy who is set to have her entitlement halved under the planned scheme. I run my own business which is struggling with reduced profits at present. Please take the time to consider my submission.

1.2 My wife has worked for the Big Lottery Fund (formerly the community fund) for over 8 years. Her post was made redundant in 2008 as her role was relocated outside of London. She was offered a fixed term contract as a suitable alternative retaining redundancy rights and even offered retention bonuses to stay until the end of a critical IT development project.

1.3 The project is now coming to an end but, if this bill goes ahead, her loyalty will be rewarded not by the redundancy she expected as part of the contract she signed but by losing the equivalent of a years pay. Is it fair that she should have worked for the whole of last year for nothing? For that would be the result of passing this bill unchanged.

1.4 She is now pregnant and we had thought that she would be able to live off her savings during the first year or two – however now all our financial plans are thrown into the air and we may end up more reliant on the state than we would like or had planned.

1.5 Changing the rules for existing staff members is fundamentally unfair. It can be argued that in tough economic times new staff members should be offered amended terms on taking up a post, however changes to contracts for existing staff should be negotiated and they should be given the opportunity to leave on existing terms if they wish .

1.6 it is impossible to plan financially if the rules are changed so fundamentally at such short notice. We would have tried to put more money aside or not taken on some financial liabilities if we had known that the rug might be pulled from under us we might even have decided this was not the time to start a family.

September 2010