Independent Public Services Pensions Commission
The UK Chancellor invited John Hutton to chair an independent commission on public service pension provision. This was intended to reduce the otherwise increasing cost of taxpayer-funded state pensions (as life expectancy increased) while ensuring adequate levels of retirement income. Reactions. The Pensions Policy Institute pointed out that these Defined Benefit schemes are available in the public sector but largely not available in the private sector which are Defined Contribution. Several public sector Unions called strikes. Government implementation. The government held consultations with the unions in 2011. In December they announced they had reached  agreements with the four largest unions. A notable change from the original report was accrual rates were higher (more put in each year) and revaluation factors were lower (the growth of earlier year's contributions) than the Commission had recommended. There was also a guarantee for people less than 10 years from retirement age.