The TUC has investigated the pensions of 351 directors of FTSE 100 companies and found that at a time when ordinary workers’ schemes have been cut or even closed directors’ pensions have risen sharply in the past year.
The average director’s pension is now £240,191 a year. At the other end of the scale membership of workplace pension schemes has fallen for the third consecutive year according to the Office for National Statistics, mainly due to the closure of private sector schemes.
In the past 20 years the membership of private sector schemes has fallen by more than three million. The National Association of Pension Funds has warned that millions of workers will be forced to survive on just their state pension.
The government is trumpeting its new automatic enrolment scheme, but this will be vastly inferior to existing public and private sector schemes. ■