Employee/employer pension earnings contributions for public sector: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


FOI reference: FOI/18/01992
Date received: 14 August 2018 
Date responded: 5 September 2018
 
Information requested

The  employee and employer pension % earnings contributions of the under noted public sector workers:

  1. Teachers
  2. Police
  3. Firemen
  4. Doctors
  5. Nurses
  6. Local Government scales
  7. Councillors
  8. MSP's

I would also like to know the amount of employer contributions for each of the categories.

I would also like to know what the cost would be if they were all transferred and enrolled into Auto enrolment.

Response

The  employee and employer pension % earnings contributions of the under noted public sector workers are available on our website via the following links;

1). Teachers

Employer: http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/STSS/STSS%20Useful%20Resources/Circulars/2015/STSS%20circular%202015%203.pdf

Member: http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/STSS/STSS%20Useful%20Resources/Circulars/2015/STSS%20circular%202015%204.pdf

2). Police

 Employer: http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/Police/Police%20Useful%20Resources/Circulars/2015/Police%20circular%2004.pdf

Member: http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/Police/Police%20Useful%20Resources/Circulars/2015/02-2015%20Member%20Contributions.pdf

3). Firefighters

Employer: http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/Firefighters/Firefighters%20Useful%20Resources/Circulars/2015/Fire%20circular%2004.pdf

Member: http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/Firefighters/Firefighters%20Useful%20Resources/Circulars/2017/Member%20contribution%20rates%202018%2002.pdf

4 and 5). NHS (Doctors & Nurses)

 Employer: 14.9%

Employee: http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/NHS/NHS%20Useful%20Resources/NHS%20Circulars/2016/NHS%20Circular%20contributions%202018-%202019.pdf

6 and 7). Local Government Scales & Councillors

Employer: Employer contribution rates are set in respect of each of the separate local government funds. This information is published by each of the funds and is available as follows:

Lothian:  http://www.lpf.org.uk/

Dumfries & Galloway: http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/

Dundee: https://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/

Falkirk: http://www.falkirk.gov.uk/

Fife:  https://www.fifedirect.org.uk/

Highland:  https://www.highland.gov.uk/

North East: http://www.nespf.org.uk/

Orkney:   http://www.orkney.gov.uk/

Scottish Borders:  https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/pensions

Shetland:   http://www.shetland.gov.uk/

Strathclyde:   https://www.spfo.org.uk

 Employee:

Band

Range

Contribution Rate

1

On earnings up to and including £20,300

5.5%

2

On earnings above £20,300 and up to £24,800

7.25%

3

On earnings above £24,800 and up to £34,000

8.5%

4

On earnings above £34,000 and up to £45,300

9.5%

5

On earnings above £45,300

12%

8). MSP's

Employer: 20.2%

MSP: Standard “higher” rate of 11% with option of lower rate 6%

9). I would also like to know what the cost would be if they were all transferred and enrolled into Auto enrolment.

Teachers and NHS Schemes

 This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Public Pensions Agency does not have the information you have requested.

 The SPPA does not have the information you requested because auto enrolment is the process where members are automatically enrolled into the pension scheme when they start employment.  As this applies to all employees when they start employment there is no option for members to transfer to auto enrolment and therefore we are unable to provide a cost.

However, to compare what employers pay towards the scheme, you can find contribution values received for the Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme and the NHS Pension Scheme Scotland within the pension scheme accounts.  See note 3 on page 42 for Teachers’ and page 41 for NHS.

  The percentage rates of contributions paid can be found within the actuaries report, see pages 15 and 16 for Teachers’ and page 16 for NHS.

The accounts are published on SPPA’s website at:

Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme

NHS Pension Scheme Scotland

Other Schemes

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Public Pensions Agency does not have the information you have requested

The SPPA does not have the information you have asked for because the information on the other schemes (Police, Fire, Local Government, Councillors and MSPs) would need to be requested from them directly as contributions are not collected by or accounted for at SPPA.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit 
Email: ceu@gov.scot  
Phone: 0300 244 4000 
The Scottish Government 
St Andrew's House 
Regent Road 
Edinburgh 
EH1 3

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