Gordon Brown Pension Sacrifice

Gordon Brown Pension Sacrifice

Gordon Brown is to sacrifice his pension and reduce his entitlement.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is scrapping some of his pension entitlements in a bid to set an example to MPs on salary and pensions.  Rather than receive a pension worth half his salary when he leaves office, he will now wait until he is 65, a move that could see him give up around £500,000 in entitlements.  The announcement was made whilst he was calling on MPs to reject an independent review’s recommendation for them to get a 2.56 per cent pay rise.  He is urging them to accept a 1.9 per cent pay rise to bring them in line with rises for police and nurses.  

Following recommendations from the senior salaries review body for all future Prime Ministers and Lord Chancellors to wait until 65 to receive their pensions.  Brown says that he and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw would abide by these rules now.  He has also backed the review body’s call for changes to the MPs pension scheme so taxpayers fund no more than 20 per cent of the scheme.

Our view

Given that MPs have for too long been able to vote on their own pay rises and have never set an example on their greed for retirement benefits and expenses benefits, this is the first in a small step, we believe, of a Government that should establish an independent body to vote on their salary package.

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