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MYTH # 4. Most public sector workers retire at 60 on two thirds of their final salary

REALITY: The majority of workers joining public sector pension schemes will retire and claim their pension at the age of 65.

What are the Facts?

Many reports about pensions would lead you to believe that most public sector workers retire at the age of 60 on two-thirds salary, but in fact this only applies to the very few people who work in public service for forty years or more. The pension age for many public sector workers has always been 65 and this now applies to most new joiners.

The average pension in Local Government is around just £4,000 per year, and just £2,000 for women while in the Civil Service the average is £6,500. The average pension for a female NHS worker is £5,000 but the median pension for women is much less. In fact half of all women pensioners who have worked in the NHS get a pension of less than £3,500 per year.

Index – Media myths about civil and public services.

7 Comments CherryPie on Mar 8th 2010

7 Responses to “Exploding Public Sector Pensions Myths – Part 5”

  1. retire at 60 on a two thirds pension? If only!

  2. Sean Jeating says:

    Ahem, the pension of someone working as civil servant in a local government – let’s say 40years or even more years, is 333 respectively 166 pounds per months?!

  3. Sean Jeating says:

    £4,000 divided by 12 (months).

    • CherryPie says:

      I think that was the only figure I didn’t try to divide by 12!!!

      Yes the pensions are very low for the vast majority of civil servants.

  4. [...] Exploding Public Sector Pensions Myths part 5 MYTH # 4. Most public sector workers retire at 60 on two thirds of their final salary [...]