Letter: Jealousy over public sector pensions is obvious

I think that Jon Lakin (Letter of the week, August 22) is correct. People who work in the private sector are jealous of the public sector pension schemes.

Until Gordon Brown started taxing the pension scheme funds of £3-6 billion per year the private sector schemes were not in bad shape, but as a result of this action the majority of schemes have had to be greatly reduced or even scrapped.

The public sector generally does not have any stored funds so they escaped Gordon's little raid. This being the case, where do they get their funds from?

With the massive increase in the public sector during the last government it has been generally possible for the current contributions to fund current pensions but with the planned reduction in the public sector workforce this will no longer be the case. This will leave a pension black hole similar to that suffered by the private sector after Gordon started his annual raid.

The next question is, "how will the public sector fill this black hole"?

The only way for them to do this and carry on with their "gold-plated pensions" is for the Government to fill the gap. By that I mean the taxpayer, the majority of whom are the people in the private sector who have had their pensions destroyed.

When you also take into account that the state pension age has had to be increased accordingly, I would agree that the private sector employees are jealous and a little angry about this attitude of the public sector employees.

Graham Burns

Newport