Mandarin who wants us to work longer retires at 61 with £1.8m pension
THE civil servant responsible for increasing the state pension age to 67 has announced his own retirement – at the age of 61.
Sir Robert Devereux, who has a pension pot of £1.8million – the biggest in the civil service – will step down in January.
He will receive £85,000 a year and a lump sum of £245,000 when he retires as permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions.
He is retiring as austerity and public sector pay restraint come under the spotlight, and amid controversy over moves to switch benefit claimants to the new universal credit, which he oversaw.
A Daily Mail investigation in August revealed that 30 Whitehall mandarins were sitting on taxpayer-funded pension pots of more than £1million each. Sir Robert’s is the highest of all non-military civil servants employed by a central government department.
Former pensions minister Baroness Altmann said that while Sir Robert’s pot is valued by government actuaries at £1.8million, it would cost a private sector worker more than £3million for the same pension on the annuities market.
‘I do hope that he goes on to do some other work because I’m sure that a lot of people aged 61 are pretty fit and healthy,’ she said.
‘If only everyone could dream of the kind of pension he has guaranteed by the taxpayer. I hope everyone in the public sector feels appreciative of this. For the general public, pension ages are being increased and people are working longer to get their pension. It’s important that the Government sets an example.’
Labour MP John Mann said: ‘ This will not go down well with pensioners whose savings are evaporating. As ever, it is one rule for those at the top and another rule for everybody else.’ Fellow Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge said: ‘Most of the people his department serve cannot afford to retire at the age of 61 because of their low wages. His annual pension payment is about double what most of my constituents earn in a year.’
Alex Wild, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group, said: ‘This is an extraordinary sum and hardpressed families will be furious to discover the size of their bill for Sir Robert’s pension.
‘Payouts of this size are a thing of the past in the private sector because they’re totally unaffordable, and at a time when the Government needs to make savings, every penny of public money should be spent on essential services, not gold-plated pensions.’
From 2019, the state pension age will start to increase for both men and women to reach 66 by 2020 and 67 by 2028. The Government is planning further rises, although these are under review.
Although the public sector moved to a career average scheme five years ago, civil servants ten years away from retirement age were told their generous final salary schemes would stand.
Sir Robert, 60, joined the DWP in 2011, having been permanent secretary at the Department of Transport since 2007.
The Oxford-educated mandarin has led reforms to welfare and pensions, including universal credit and the new state pension.
He was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to transport and welfare and for voluntary service.
‘A thing of the past’