Letter: Police deserve pensions at 50

I REFER to the article by Teresa Hunter on the subject of public sector pensions, and in particular to the assertion by a "pensions expert" that it is "bonkers" that some police officers may retire on full pension aged 50 (Money, 15 August).

I would advise this unnamed actuarial buffoon that if, say, one enters the service aged 20 and endures 30 years of onerous shift work, equivalent to perpetual "jet-lag"; arduous tasks, often unspecified and definitely not regulated by any Health & Safety organisation; snatched or interrupted meals; injury and disease; the inability to make definite holiday plans due to belated court citations within already niggardly annual leave allocations, one would be grateful to retire. Does this idiot seriously expect that officers aged 60+ may potentially have to wrestle down 25-year-old violent offenders, or in like manner, that 65-year-old firefighters bodily carry people down ladders from burning buildings?

As far as I am aware, having throughout their employment made significant contribution towards their pensions, constables and sergeants may retire on completion of 30 years of service and in any case are required to retire aged 55 regardless of length of service.

It is a matter of great sadness to me that many so-called "rank and file" officers die within three to five years of retirement. Indeed, I rather doubt that there are many members of the bean counting fraternity who have been obliged in the course of their work to face, up close and personal, an angry or deranged individual intent on causing them some harm.

Ian Johnson, Angus