{"id":19988,"date":"2020-02-21T15:33:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T15:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19988"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:54:31","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:54:31","slug":"clarion-housing-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19988","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Slap in the face&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Commenting on reports that the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehousing.co.uk\/news\/news\/clarion-to-hike-employee-pension-contributions-for-hundreds-of-workers-65132\">housing association Clarion is to hike employee pension contributions<\/a> to 22.9 per cent a year, Unite regional officer Matt Freeman said today, (February 21),\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a slap in the face to the hundreds of workers who have worked hard and paid into the defined benefit scheme on the promise of a secure income for life. With this hike Clarion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is pricing members out of a decent pension and worse into poverty when they retire.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bClarion knows full well that a hike of this scale is basically closure by stealth as many members will simply be unable to afford the estimated \u00c2\u01413,000 more a year it will take to stay in the scheme,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile staff across the organisation face cuts to their pension, Clarion now employs 48 senior managers on \u00c2\u0141100,000 a year or more \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an increase of 14 in a single year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is even more unjust given that the burden is falling squarely on workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 shoulders with Clarion \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an organisation with an earned net surplus of \u00c2\u0141154m last year &#8211; not increasing it contributions by a single penny,&#8221; Freeman went on to say.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite will continue to push for an end to the 7.5 per cent employer contributions cap which is far from generous for such a financially strong organisation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis will enable Clarion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s management to contribute more to their hardworking employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 final pension pot.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to Unite, an employee earning \u00c2\u014130,000 a year would have to contribute an additional \u00c2\u0141245 a month to stay in the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s defined benefit scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Commenting on reports that the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest housing association Clarion is to hike employee pension contributions to 22.9 per cent a year, Unite regional officer Matt Freeman said today, (February 21),\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a slap in the face to the hundreds of workers who have worked hard and paid into the defined benefit scheme on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[939,270],"wps_subtitle":"Clarion Housing group pushing workers into poverty when they retire","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24705,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19988\/revisions\/24705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}