One third of life on retirement-affordable pensions?

[patslatt]

In The Times today Civil servants will spend one third of life in retirement - Times Online there is a discussion of the implications of British civil servants spending a third of their lives in gilt-edged retirement with life expectancy rising rapidly . Life expectancy for a male civil servant aged 40 is now 89, 29 years beyond normal retirement age of 60, and for a female civil servant life expectancy is a year longer.

If these figures apply to Ireland,the cost of pensions' indexation link to wages will be huge,with pensioners getting more than they earned when working. With compound interest, a pension of €30,000 on a final salary of €60,000 grows as follows in 30 years:

3% €73,000 a year rounded
4% €97,000
5% €130,000
6% €172,000

The Irish electorate,most of whom will be heavily reliant on the Old Age Pension,would have a dim view of this indexation gold plating. Will any political party call a halt to it?

[Conor]

If you really want to get yourself in a tizzy, imagine if a ninety year old public sector pensioner - the highest paid public sector pensioner in the country, in fact - married a fifty year old. Wouldn't that be awful?