COUNCIL taxpayers will have to help make up a near £133 million shortfall in Herefordshire Council’s pension scheme.

The council is ready to pitch more money into bringing the deficit down, having put £12.8 million of employer contributions into the scheme over the past year alone.

Another £10 million went into a separate scheme for teachers.

Future budget plans now have bigger employer contributions to the scheme built in. By 2010/2011 those contributions will top more than 20 per cent of pensionable pay through phased increases.

At the end of March this year the net deficit for the scheme had fallen to £132.9 million or about 70 per cent of the market value of its assets.

The drop was put down to current market performance, but the audit and corporate governance committee, which monitors the council’s money, has been warned that while the deficit does not have to be met immediately, action to eliminate it must start now to go on “over a period of years”.

Committee chairman Councillor Chris Chappell said that the council should even consider committing some of the near £7 million it holds in general reserves to boost future pension contributions. “We owe it to our employees,” said Coun Chappell.

Herefordshire Council’s pension scheme is one of the last links to the old Hereford and Worcester County Council.

Control of the scheme stayed with Worcestershire County Council when the two counties split in 1998 as Herefordshire Council wasn’t thought ready to run a scheme of its own.

At present, the council does not have a representative on the panel which makes decisions about the scheme. Given the size of the deficit, moves are under way to put at least one Herefordshire representative on the panel in future.

The scheme itself is funded, meaning that the council and employees pay contributions into a fund, calculated at a level intended to balance the pensions liabilities with investment assets.

Although the benefits are not payable until employees retire, the council has a commitment to make contribution payments and this needs to be disclosed at the time employees earn their future entitlement.

The cost of retirement benefits is included in the net cost of services when it is earned by employees, rather than when it is paid as pensions.

However, the charge required to be made against council tax is based on the cash payable in the year, so the real cost of the retirement benefits is reversed out through the general fund balance.

The fund itself is reviewed by actuaries every three years, with the most recent look being last year.

Herefordshire Council made nearly £3 million on its investments for 2007/2008, a sum that went more than £800,000 over the original target.

That extra money will be built into the council’s future budget plans.

The council’s treasury team manages investments with institutions on the authority’s approved lending list. The level of funds available for the council to invest increased during the year because nearly £8 million worth of investments that had been managed by an outside firm – on the council’s behalf – was brought back in-house.