There is cause for celebration at County Hall as the Isle of Wight Council’s pension fund has grown substantially over the past 12 months, with a net return on investment of a staggering £93million. In the 2023/24 period, the Isle of Wight Council saw investment income of £24.7million with profits of £68.6million, making a total net return on investment of £93.4million. Contributions totalling £26,541,000 were paid in during the period, with benefits paid of £28,588,000 and management expenses of £7,065,000. The local authority’s pension pot coffers have now grown to £775,462,000 from £691,123,000 in 2022/23 – a net increase of £84,339,000, around £25million better than expected just a few months ago. The Pension Fund has around 18,000 members and is strong enough to cover around 136% of the fund’s liabilities. Councillor Chris Jarman, chair of the Pension Fund Committee, has said:
“The result is outstanding in challenging times, which is thanks to prudent decisions and an excellent team”.
So as this originally started as aprox 15% of our council tax taken each month, will the residents
see a refund in there pockets from the greedy council workers pension fund.
I believe that 16p in every £1 we pay goes towards the pension fund… disgusting really..
Then you believe wrong! The employees contribute from their wages into the pension pot, exactly the same as others workers pay into their pensions.
If 16% of your Council Tax went towards the pension fund, then the other 84% must go towards the council wage bill. So where does the money come from to pay Island Roads, Education, Adult Social care etc. etc.
How are people who’ve earned their pensions “greedy”?
So you don’t mind paying for their pension pot….
Whoop whoop for you but hard working sensible folk get services cut whilst they rack up a fat cat pension…
Think you maybe in the minority here ( unless you work for them????)
Says jarman,the multi millionaire!
In 2024/25 the Isle of Wight Council plans to spend £408.2 million on providing services for the Island.
the current value of the councillors and council workers past and present, pension fund is £775.462 million – or in simpler terms, enough to fund the island for nearly two years.
The council workers were paid in money that was taken from islanders in the form of general taxation which was handed to the government, who handed it to the isle of wight council, who handed it to their workers, who then paid it into the pension schemen. The islanders were further rinsed by the local council who took money from them in the form of council tax, paid it to themselves and their workers, who then paid it into their pension scheme.
eh!
If the Government paid the money from general taxation for the council to pay their workers & into their pensions, Why would further money be needed from the local council tax to pay them again?
Are you saying council workers get paid twice?
Management expenses of £7M in a year? No sign of austerity hitting the fat cats in the City!
Refund please. But as well all know, that won’t be happening.
Of course not, because you haven’t paid into the pension
Well it’s comforting to know that not all Council Departments our utterly useless then. At least one functions efficiently – the one looking after pensions of the IWC inept staff. Beggars belief.
Wrong! You don’t think they could be trusted to manage their pension invesments do you? It is outsourced, hence the mgmt costs.
Strange how any financial ‘ventures/projects’ for the ‘benefit’ of the Council Tax Payer seem to either be cancelled or run rabidly over budget, but when the Council are to benefit, it all goes amazingly well and big profits result !
Money for old rope, half the amount of staff ain’t needed.
Reduce our Council tax
Kevin you are 100% , to many staff just sit around in offices,on computers sending emails to eachother. Endless reviewing and planning and uneeded meetings, managers that couldn’t do the job of their front line staff,many managers in Adults and Children’s don’t even have relevant qualifications. Cut staff, pension profit should go to pay council staff,Why should council tax payers be paying council staff to look after pensions of staff ?.
Imagine if we had a Leeds situation on the Island, would be ,6mths before clear up!. Leeds and council sorted in less than 18hrs !. Can’t even sort an overflowing bin for week’s.
Stealing from the tax payer’s….
Totally obscene, and every year you rip us cash cow’s off by raising our council tax!!!!!
No wonder you lot walk around with a permanent grin on your mugs…
How about giving us a chance by not raising our council tax??????
Oh no sorry that would affect the fat cat pension pot we have contributed to over many years….
And you have the cheek to cut services, saying you are short of money ….take it out of our joint pension pot??????
As we have contributed to it …..
They should all be on a contribution scheme, like those in the real, non public sector, field.
Are you saying public sector workers don’t contribute to a pension scheme, shocking, how do you get a job in the public sector.
Their pension is not calculated by the amount they have contributed. That rip off is confined to the private sector.
Of course it is! They pay a percentage of their salary unless they opt out. If they do, then they don’t the pension.
If they earn more then they contribute more and get a higher pension.
If they are a lower paid employee then they contribute a lower amount and get a lower pension.
You are talking from the wrong end of your torso again!
In total agreement. Public sector pensions are ‘gold plated’, If they contributed to a private pension scheme and looked at the pitiful returns on offer after years of payments, they would realise just how lucky they are to be part of such a scheme. Unfortunately, there are some people unable to even afford to pay into a private pension, it is very unfair.
Then reduce our council tax…..
for people with 1 home only. not holiday homes.
To the people who think this money is the tax payers, you’re wrong. It’s the money of the council workers, it is them not us that paid into it. It is their money not ours.
And where do you think the money for their wages comes from?? Semantics yes and I’m all for a fair wage for a job well done, but bear in mind that a vast majority of these so called workers would be sacked long ago if they were to work in the real world. And that’s before you take into account phenomenal sick absences and the laughably title ‘working from home’ skivers. Then the ‘family friendly’ (can’t be ar#ed to come in as Johnny has a sniffle at weekends) crowd. Very few IWC staff would survive in the real job world.
Yeah right. And the small matter of the employer contributions goes where????
It’s probably the biggest complainers who are the biggest drains on society.
It’s too bad we don’t see anything like that return on the rubbish investments our Council have made on our behalf.
Can’t we analyse this a little more cleverly. The reason why it us up is because stock markets are up, generally a good year all around… why not say that, there is really no genius here unless the fund is actively managed…. This should give some scope to reduce council tax, but not holding my breadth!
Was it invested in Red Funnel and Wightlink to get this kind of return !!!