Council tax/pensions

Finance Services Falkirk Council

7 January 2010

am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for information.
This authority has 20 working days in which to respond and you
should therefore expect a response on or before the 4th of February
2010.

Regards

Finance Services Falkirk Council

Dear Mr Ovens

In 2008/09, the last full financial year, the Council made
employer’s contributions of £15.630m to the Falkirk Council Pension
Fund. In that period some 18.7% of council spending was financed by
council tax, the remainder being government grant. If this % is
applied to the total employer’s contribution an amount of £2.922m
results. This is equivalent to around 4.9% of council tax income.

Council tax is to help meet the cost of services delivered in the
Falkirk area and therefore there is no contribution to the European
Union.

Regards Finance Services Falkirk Council

Dear Mr Ovens

I refer to your email of 18 January 2010 and now respond to your
supplementary questions:-

 I’m sorry if my response did not make it clear that the Council
Tax funds 18.7% of the cost of Council services. Government Grant
meets the cost of the other 81.3%

 The percentage of council tax that goes towards pensions is 4.9%
as explained in my earlier response.

 Council tax helps meet the cost of all local authority services
except Council Housing. Education, Social Work, Roads & Transport
and Police are amongst the largest.

Regards Finance Services

Dear Mr Ovens

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for
information.

This authority has 20 working days in which to respond and you
should therefore expect a response on or before the 4 March 2010.

Regards

Finance Services Falkirk Council

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Mr Ovens,

I refer to your e-mail of 4^th February, 2010.

The Council makes contributions directly to the Local Government Pension
Scheme and the Scottish Teachers Superannuation Scheme. It also makes
contributions indirectly to the Firefighters Pension Schemes and the
Police Pension Schemes.

Council Tax only accounts for around 18.7% of Council income and thus the
contributions to the four schemes by the Council in the last complete
financial year were as follows:

Local Government Pension Scheme - £15.63m
4.9% of income

Police Pensions Schemes - £
4.24m 1.34%

Fire Pension Schemes - £
1.31m 0.41%

Scottish Teachers Pension Schemes - £ 7.76m
2.46%

The Local Government Pension Scheme covers Council employees who are not
eligible to join the Teachers, Police or Fire Schemes. This includes
Social Workers and Roads staff.

I hope this information is helpful.

A McGirr

Pensions Section

Falkirk Council

Tel 01324-506304

Fax 01324-506334

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Mr Ovens,

What I am saying is that in 2008/09, the Council took in around £59 million as Council Tax. It also paid out around £29 million to the 4 pension schemes previously mentioned. The remaining £30 million plus £260 million of Government Grants were used to provide local services (schools, social work, roads, refuse collection, planning, housing, libraries, etc).

When considering the extent to which monies are paid into pension schemes, it is perhaps misleading to focus on Council Tax as if it were the Council's sole source of income. To see the complete picture one needs to take Government Grants into account.

So, looking at this bigger picture, in 2008/09, the Council took in around £316 million of which £29 million went in pension contributions.

Alastair

Alastair McGirr
Pensions Section
Falkirk Council
Tel 01324-506304
Fax 01324-506334

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Mr Ovens,

The total income derived from Council Tax in 2008/09 was around £59 million. The total sum paid into pension schemes in 2008/09 was around £29 million. £29 million is 49.15% of £59 million.

All Council income (i.e. other than the £29 million paid to pension schemes) goes towards the provision of local services.

I hope this answers your query about pensions and the Council tax.

(Can I just correct what you said in your e-mail. You state that "18% of the council tax goes towards services". This is not what we have said at all.

What we did say was that 18.7% of the Council's Income (in 08/09) came from Council Tax).

A McGirr
Pensions Section
Falkirk Council
Tel 01324-506304
Fax 01324-506334

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Mr Ovens,

Yes you could say that in 2008/09 an amount equivalent to about 50% of the Council tax in that year went towards pension contributions. All Council income, other than the sums paid to pension schemes, is used to provide local services.

Alastair McGirr
Pensions Section
Falkirk Council
Tel 01324-506304
Fax 01324-506334

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