FATCATS’ PENSION SHAME

Raking it in as workers face cuts

FATCAT bosses are raking in massive pensions perks while millions of workers are facing hardship in old age, a Daily Mirror investigation has revealed.

The Government this week paved the way for firms to slash the pension payouts of 11 million workers.

Yet companies are pouring a packet into directors’ retirement funds.

Research by the Mirror and shareholder group Manifest found that the average FTSE 100 chief executive gets the equivalent of 30% of their salary in pension payments annually.

But firms put an average 6% of a shopfloor worker’s salary into their pension. That produces a paltry £1,300 a year, on average.

By contrast, George Weston, boss of Primark owner Associated British Foods, may well pocket £550,000 a year when he retires. He had £711,000 put into his pension pot in 2015.

DISTORTED

Associated British Foods called his pension “a mathematical outcome of longevity of service, age and salary”.

BP’s Bob Dudley had £4.4million pumped into his pension that year – more than three times his salary. BP said the payment was distorted by the fact that it was a US scheme.

Business information firm RELX put £766,000 into chief executive Erik Engstrom’s pension in 2015, while Alison Cooper, who runs tobacco giant Imperial Brands, got a £590,000 boost. Taxpayer-saved bank Lloyds put £568,000 into Antonio HortaOsorio’s retirement pot last year.

Tom McPhail, head of retirement policy at broker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The system is grossly unfair. There is one rule for senior executives and one for everyone else.”

Earlier this week, a Government Green Paper proposed that troubled firms with defined benefit schemes could “cut or renegotiate” their pensioners’ benefits, potentially affecting 11 million people.