Public Sector Pension Fund (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 17 June 2022.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

The government plan 2022-2026 states, on page 165:

'Public Sector Pension Fund Liability Refinancing

The pre-existing past service employee pension liabilities owed to the Jersey Teachers Superannuation Fund and the Public Employees Contributory Retirement Scheme are currently valued at up to £456 million. These liabilities are to be refinanced via issuance of external debt expected to mature in 30 years, with the proceeds paid towards the settlement of the outstanding Pension Debt. The new debt, issued at a lower rate, is anticipated to replace the older debt paying higher rates earning a net saving for the Government.'

It states that new debt is at a lower rate than 'the older debt' yet it is not clear that interest is being charged on the 'older debt'. Also, as stated the actuarial valuation of the debt is currently £456m yet the government valuation based on repayments on page 163 is a total of £1,140m (Real Value adjusted for inflation).

A

Can you please provide the current rate being paid on the 'older debt' noting that a bond has been issued at 2.85% to repay this debt?

B

Can you please provide the assumptions resulting in a 'Real Value' of the debt as £1,140m in current terms compared to the actuarial calculation assumptions which calculate the current value at £456m, as it is this difference which appears to have justified government borrowing to pay off the debt at this time?

Response

A

The Jersey Teachers Superannuation Fund (JTSF) Pension Increase Debt (PID) has a conventional debt structure with interest applied to the outstanding balance. The current interest rate on the JTSF PID is 6.5%.

The Public Employees Contributory Retirement Scheme (PECRS) Pre-87 debt is formalised in regulations. It is defined as a series of payments up to 2053, when the debt will have been fully repaid. The series of payments are discounted by an interest rate equivalent to the weighted average of the long term expected investment returns. At the 2018 actuarial valuation the discount rate was assumed to decline from 5% to 4.1% per annum over 20 years from 31st December 2021. 

B

The assumptions used to calculate a real value of debt of £1,140 million include:

• estimates of future cash flows for the JTSF PID to 2116 and for the PECRS Pre-87 debt to 2053 as per the latest actuarial advice for the respective schemes
• these are discounted using the independent Fiscal Policy Panel (FPP) economic assumptions on the long-term trend of inflation at 2.6%.