Pensionable

Was anyone else surprised  to read of London Mayor candidate Brian Paddick's £63,397 police pension?    


Appropriate pension provision is a crucial part of ageing.  I also get a public service pension myself, and so am hardly going to be against the principle.  And, by way of clarification, about a fifth of  Mr Paddick's for my 33 years' service.    But I rail against the concept of pensions of this magnitude, in the same way that I rail against very high salaries.    Both emphasise the huge gap between poverty and wealth in the UK, and can create resentment.


There is also the cost to the public purse.   Mr Paddick, according to Wikipedia, was born in 1958 and is on an index-linked  £63,000  pension in his early 50s.  If he lives - as he may well do - for another 30 or 40 years, that is a huge continuing  cost to the country.  And there must be many in a similar position.