During the decade since pension reforms began in 2010, the raid on the elderly’s finances has been overshadowed by a series of ‘bigger’ issues like Hack gate, Skripal, the culture war, Brexit and Boris. However, none of those involved the deliberate bullying of 3.65 million UK women out of their pensions, have been held to account by the Whitehall elite. No kind of spin or government statistic can hide the fact that 12% of Britain’s outstanding unfunded pension debt liabilities relate to just 600,000 civil service big wigs.
The latest Sunday Times Rich List shows the public sector has over 23,000 pension pots of a £1million or more. The number includes 2,658 teachers, 400 retired staff from Glasgow City Council as well as 223 from Kent County Council alone. The Taxpayers’ Alliance states that there are now 123,000 civil servants above the age of 50, compared with just 88,000 before Labour came to office in 1997.
In November 2007, Sir Richard Mottram became the country’s wealthiest pensioner paid by the state when he retired from the Cabinet Office on a package worth almost £2.7million. However, top of the league now is former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, who by June 2009 had £5.4million in his retirement fund. There are many other examples of this kind of self-donated largesse. This is no longer a political issue anymore; it is one of justice.
This scandal has received nowhere near the coverage of the banker’s bonuses scandal or the MP’s expenses scandal. Most of the bankers awarded huge bonuses more than achieved their profit targets, while most of the Whitehall scroungers have presided over abject failure. In addition to this, while MPs working an expenses system was unacceptable, it is a minute cost to Britain compared to the extra trillion Pounds these civil service peacocks have awarded themselves since 2006.
Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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