Almost half of British people believe that the Government is cutting too many public sector jobs, while more people agree than disagree that public sector workers should be made to contribute more towards their pensions, our poll has found.
Just under half of people think that the Government is right to ask public sector workers to contribute more of their salary towards their pension, while a similar amount agrees that public sector workers should not take strike action over the proposed changes to their pension scheme.
- 48% of British people think that the Government is planning to cut too many public sector jobs
- Just 20% think that the Government is not cutting enough public sector jobs, while the same amount thinks that the balance is currently about right
- 48% of people agree that it is right for the Government to ask public sector workers to contribute more of their salary towards their pensions, although just over a third (35%) think the Government is wrong to do so
- The poll also revealed that 49% of people oppose public sector workers taking strike action over the proposed changes to their pensions, while 36% support action
The poll comes as Chancellor George Osborne revealed plans to raise pension contributions from public sector employees last month, to the anger of many workers and unions. As a result of the plan, 2.5 million NHS workers, teachers and civil servants in England, Scotland and Wales were told they will have to pay £1.1bn in extra contributions from April 2012.
The Government is reducing budgets across the public sector as part of a strategy to eliminate the UK's structural budget deficit by 2015-16.
