Independent Scotland Pensions

I was intrigued by the comments which came out today regarding the situation regarding pensions if we end up independent.

Rather than listen to the rhetoric from the parties or accept what the most recent red top says I thought I would investigate.

First I must state that I am not a pension expert or am actuarial specialist. I just went and read over the audited statements regarding the LGPS position for the different regions.

I know that the effectiveness of pensions is linked to the health of the economy and a lot of other things. So I looked purely at the situation today and worked on the basis that things stay the same.

So take the situation for the North East of Scotland LGPS scheme. It would cost every person in Scotland £156 per year just to meet the current liabilities. That is only one region and only looks at the pension scheme for local government.

Now if we lift income tax by 10% we can cover these liabilities which is fine by me.

Not sure how we pay for the new foreign office, security force, inland revenue, DVLA (have I missed anything). 

Remember in the Scottish governments annual account, which includes the revenue from oil, we still run at an annual deficit before we include these things.