Meanwhile 'The Bulgarian government has come up with a similar idea. $300m of private early retirement savings was supposed to be transferred to the state pension scheme. The government gave way after trade unions protested and finally only about 20% of the original plans were implemented.'
But that's just the old Eastern Block countries, I hear you say. Not so,:
'Ireland. In 2001, the National Pension Reserve Fund was brought into existence for the purpose of supporting pensions of the Irish people in the years 2025-2050. The scheme was also supposed to provide for the pensions of some public sector employees (mainly university staff). However, in March 2009, the Irish government earmarked €4bn from this fund for rescuing banks. In November 2010, the remaining savings of €2.5bn was seized to support the bailout of the rest of the country.
The final example is France. In November, the French parliament decided to earmark €33bn from the national reserve pension fund FRR to reduce the short-term pension scheme deficit. In this way, the retirement savings intended for the years 2020-2040 will be used earlier, that is in the years 2011-2024, and the government will spend the saved up resources on other purposes.'
If we had a Labour government in power now then I would not be in the slightest bit surprised if they decided to conduct a similar raid on private and/or public pension pots. I doubt that a Conservative government would do this but desperate times... However can you be sure that a Labour government, red in tooth and claw, will not be elected soon? How safe is your pension?
