Fat-cat Whitehall mandarins with £1m pensions pots
ALMOST 40 Whitehall mandarins enjoy taxpayer-funded pension pots worth more than £1million, the Daily Express can reveal.
Staggering data also show that in the first year of the Covid pandemic, 187 of the most senior civil servants had a cumulative pension pot of £123million – an average of £657,128 each.
This was equivalent to the annual state pensions for around 13,464 pensioners.
Campaigners say the eye-watering figures show it is time to end the “Whitehall retirement racket”.
Research from the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) shows that former Foreign Office mandarin Lord McDonald banked the largest pot – valued at a whopping £2.2million.
Shocked
Sir Philip Barton, who was castigated over the UK’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan last year, saw the largest increase in the value of his pension’s value. It grew by £321,000 to £1.7million.
Cabinet secretary Simon Case had a pension pot of £450,000 in 2020-21, while Treasury boss Tom Scholar had one worth £1,411,000.
Ministry of Justice permanent secretary Antonia Romeo, who is tipped for a senior role in a new government under Tory leadership favourite Liz Truss, has accumulated a pot valued at £745,000.
Meanwhile, Lord Sedwill, former head of the Civil Service, had a pension pot equivalent to £102,500 per year in retirement – over three times the average UK salary.
A further five mandarins were entitled to annual pensions of between £80,000 and £95,000 per year. These are permanent secretaries Matthew Rycroft, Tamara Finkelstein, Christopher Wormald and Simon McDonald, and first parliamentary counsel Elizabeth Gardiner.
The TPA research also shows that the average pension for departmental heads upon retirement was equivalent to £39,904 per annum.
The campaign group is demanding the new government cracks down on overgenerous pension arrangements in the public sector. John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Working taxpayers and pensioners feeling the pinch will be shocked at the extent of these million pound pension pots.
“Senior civil servants enjoy unfunded retirement packages that dwarf the deals for most private sector workers, despite the taxpayers who pay for them seeing savings squeezed.
Politicians need to put an end to the Whitehall retirement racket and crack down on overgenerous pension arrangements in the public sector.”
Liz Truss has vowed to streamline the Civil Service if she wins the race to become prime minister.
A Government spokesperson said: “Pay and benefits for senior civil servants reflect the level of responsibility associated with their role.”