Brown calls for review of MP pensions
Prime minister Gordon Brown has called for a review into the pensions received by MPs.
Mr Brown has ordered the Senior Salaries Review Body to consider the “full range of options” in order to reduce the burden placed on taxpayers by the scheme.
It comes after an advisory body warned that the cost of pensions to the UK taxpayer was on target to hit a threshold of 20 per cent of the annual pension payroll.
The government says the review seeks to assess how to make public contributions to government pensions sustainable in the long term.
At present, an MP with 20 year’s service is entitled to a pension of at least £30,000 a year. The annual cost of servicing an MP’s pension has risen from £9.8 million in 2003 to £12 million last year.
