The Conservatives were criticised by unions yesterday after David Cameron signalled that a future Tory government would seek to cut drastically the rising cost of pensions for Britain's public sector workers.
The Conservatives were criticised by unions yesterday after David Cameron signalled that a future Tory government would seek to cut drastically the rising cost of pensions for Britain's public sector workers.
The move to phase out generous final salary schemes with less-generous money-purchase ones in a bid to save the Exchequer billions of pounds over the term of the next parliament could become one of the defining issues at the next General Election, putting clear water between the Tories and Labour.
The policy would undoubtedly set a future Cameron administration on a collision course with up to five million teachers, doctors, nurses and civil servants across the UK.
Brendan Barber, the TUC's general-secretary, said the Conservatives' shift in policy would come "like a bolt from the blue to millions of hard-working public servants who see a decent pension as a vital part of their reward for doing tough jobs on pay that is often far from generous".
He added: "It is the kind of issue that could make the difference in marginal seats."
Figures released in this week's pre-Budget report showed that the annual cost to the taxpayer of public sector pensions is projected to rise from £2.3bn last year to £3.9bn in 2010/11, the cost of which, it is estimated, will be £150 per family.
Earlier this week, Mr Cameron told business leaders in Manchester that he wanted to end the "apartheid in pensions", where public sector workers, thanks to the taxpayer, enjoyed generous pensions, while private sector workers relied on their own contributions to provide less- generous ones.
Last night, a party spokesman highlighted the growing cost of public sector pensions to the Treasury and conspicuously failed to deny that Mr Cameron was intent on major reform that would lead to less- generous pensions for public sector workers in the future.
He stressed that existing public sector workers would not lose out.
