Bank of England faces backlash for protecting staff pensions while millions of Brits face slash
Employees able to top-up their final-salary pension using taxpayers' cash while Brits elsewhere face pension black hole
THE Bank of England was slammed last night for protecting its own staff pension scheme — after bringing in measures that slashes them for millions of others.
It emerged yesterday the amount paid by the Bank into its final-salary pension scheme using taxpayers’ cash had doubled since 2011.
The Bank’s contributions are now more than half each employee’s pensionable salary, including governor Mark Carney’s.
Its pensions shortfall has been eliminated while similar schemes elsewhere are suffering from a combined £1trillion black hole.
Quantitative easing is said to be largely responsible as the Bank prints extra money to buy government bonds, which pension schemes invest heavily in.
Ex-pensions minister Baroness Altmann said: “The generosity of the Bank’s own pension may help explain why it seems so complacent about the pension problems created by its policies.”
Paul Fisher, who recently left the Bank and is now deputy head of the Prudential Regulation Authority, is entitled to a guaranteed pension of at least £94,685 a year from age 60.
Meanwhile, more than 90,000 Royal Mail staff were warned last month their final salary pension was “unaffordable” and could be shut down.