Pension fairness

I object to the content of Michael Kelly’s biased piece on the public sector strike (Perspective, 1 December). He tries to reduce the argument to a comparison between bankers and “cleaners … and dinner ladies”. It is nothing of the kind.

Very few people, including me, have any sympathy with Sir Fred Goodwin and his peers, but the pensions issue is between the favoured public sector and the rest of the taxpaying population who pay to subsidise their pensions to levels that are massively beyond the reach of anyone else.

Mr Kelly trots out the cliché about the public sector pensions being £4,000 per year, ignoring the fact that for similar contributions and service length in other sectors it would be circa one third of this.

He says we don’t appreciate the struggle that low-paid public sector workers have but seems to fail to realise that other low-paid workers and pensioners are paying the tax to fund the others’ pensions.

When you have nothing but the state pension, an additional £4,000 per annum is a tidy sum.

Mr Kelly craves a Labour government, ignoring that it is mainly responsible for the public and private pensions mess that we now have and that it would also have had to take very similar steps to those of the coalition.

It is entirely right that public sector workers contribute more towards pensions and work longer as longevity improves. If he wants fairness, let him campaign for a massive boost to the state pension – for everyone.

David K Allan

The Square

Haddington, East Lothian