Public sector workers will have to pay up to �3,000 a year to keep pensions

Doctors, nurses, teachers and civil servants face additional contributions in plans to be unveiled by ministers

Public sector workers are to be told they will have to pay up to �3,000 a year more to keep up their pension schemes.

Ministers will set out precise details on Thursday of the additional contributions facing millions of doctors, nurses, teachers and civil servants.

According to leaked details obtained by the Daily Telegraph, while 750,000 of the lowest paid staff face no increase, the remaining five million in pension schemes will be hit, with the top earners paying the most.

In the first year, the best-paid 40,000 public sector workers, earning well over �100,000, will pay an additional �284 a month ? �3,400 a year ? for their final salary schemes.

The paper said that a doctor on �100,000 a year would pay almost �2,000 a year more, teachers �1,752 and civil servants �2,100.

For staff in the �50,000 pay bracket, those working in the NHS would pay �768 a year extra, teachers �696, and civil servants �684.

Workers with a �35,000 salary will have to find an extra �516 a year while on �21,000 a year will pay an additional �108 a year.

Further increases will be introduced until 2015 so that the overall extra contributions rise to almost �3bn a year, accounting for an average 3.2% of each worker's gross salary before tax.

For senior civil servants, the increases represent a near doubling in the contributions, the paper said, while doctors and teachers face increases of around 30% and 50%.

The trade unions have warned the government faces an autumn of industrial action if it presses ahead with plans to reform public sector pensions based on the review carried out by the former Labour cabinet minister Lord Hutton.

However it is understood that Treasury chief secretary, Danny Alexander, will argue that under the proposals, the lowest paid staff will be protected from the biggest increases.

The newspaper said that the figures show that when tax is taken into account, a nurse on �25,000 would be only �12 a month worse off whereas a hospital consultant on �130,000 a year will have to pay �160 a month extra.

The Treasury confirmed that the government would be announcing further details of its proposed changes to the pension scheme but declined to comment on the figures.

• Public sector pensions
• Public services policy

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/28/public-sector-contributions-keep-pensions

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