When Lloyds introduced its pension cap in 2014, with the tacit support of Accord and Unite who refused to ballot their members on industrial action, it said it would keep the cap under constant review. Lloyds must undertake an immediate review of the pension cap now that inflation is spiralling out of control.
Members will recall that Lloyds froze pensionable pay for active members of the bank’s defined benefit schemes with effect from 2nd April 2014. Whilst it’s true that pensions increase through added years of service (at the rate of 1/60th per year) that pales into insignificance when you take into account the effect of inflation. Some commentators are suggesting that CPI inflation could reach 18% by January 2023. If that happened, then RPI inflation, which unions use when negotiating pay increases, could well reach 20%. Citigroup warned recently that inflation was “entering the stratosphere”.
We understand that some members of staff have tried to raise questions on this issue with Charlie Nunn, Lloyds Group Chief Executive Officer, at his regular Q&A sessions but, unsurprisingly, those questions never get picked. We are calling on Mr. Nunn directly to review the cap now. The cap could easily be removed until such time as inflation gets back to the Bank of England inflation target of 2%. It’s totally unreasonable that a Lloyds employee will never see his or her pensionable salary increase at a time when inflation is spiralling out of control.
Members with any questions on this should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 262868 (choose Option 1).
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