Robbed of my pension

THE size of former Met chief Lord Hogan-Howe’s pension pot is yet another example of the inequalities between public and private sector retirement plans.

The revelations of salaries of up to £750,000 for executives in HS2 and Network Rail also begs questions about their future pensions.

No public servant should receive a bigger salary than the Prime Minister or be paid more than £30,000 a year as a taxpayer-funded pension.

Taxpayer contributions to a public servant pension pot should be reduced as their salaries rise. So someone on £50,000 a year gets 10 per cent into their pension fund, while earners of £100,000 get 5 per cent.

Public sector employees who retire early and then take on a highly paid, full-time job should not be able to draw their pension while working.

My private sector pension was closed in 2002 after changes brought about by Gordon Brown. I now receive 60 per cent of the pension I had saved for. This could never happen to a public sector employee.

KEITH JACQUES, Stafford.