Public unhappy with public sector pensions

Some new research from AXA on the widening gulf between private and public sector pension provision has been picked up by the television news this evening.

The research found that 61% of people believe it is unfair that people working in the public sector generally receive better pensions than their private sector counterparts.

Interestingly, 44% of public sector workers agree this is unfair.

Figures calculated by AXA show that a 25 year-old woman working in the private sector would have to contribute almost a quarter of her annual salary every year to receive a pension on a par with her public sector counterpart.

A report by the British-North American Committee found that in 2009 the estimated total taxpayer liability for future public sector pensions may be higher than £1 trillion. In the previous year alone the cost to the taxpayer of public sector pensions exceeded £45 billion. This cost is equivalent to around 80% of the budget deficit in 2008.

With this level of dissatisfaction about the generous provision of public sector pension benefits compared with the astronomical cost of funding a similar level of retirement income in the private sector, will public sector pensions become an important election issue?