Pensions burden

The First Minister tells us that she wants to see a fair society but the evidence suggests that she is more in favour of a society that is fair to her and her supporters.

It is not always easy to compare the work of employees in the two sectors but on a like for like basis, public sector employees are paid 10 per cent more than private sector employees.

The real inequality between the public and private sectors, however, comes in the form of pensions, where more than 90 per cent of public sector employees enjoy a final salary index linked pension – mainly unfunded – compared with fewer than 15 per cent in the private sector.

Employees in the public sector pay a maximum of 14 per cent less tax – 8.4 per cent – while the cost to the taxpayer is 32 per cent. Most public sector employees pay around 7 per cent of salary towards their pension

If we really want a system that is fair to all then we should increase the proportion of salary paid by public sector employees for their pension.

We are all living much longer than our parents, making pensions in the public sector completely unaffordable. One resolution would be to take pension contributions out of the tax deduction system and reinstate the ability of pension companies to retain the tax on dividends, which was stopped by Gordon Brown in 1998, reducing private sector pensions by £105 billion since then.

JAMES MACINTYRE

Clarendon Road Linlithgow