VerbatimParliament, as it happens

Civil Servants: Workplace Pensions

Asked by Rupert LoweRestore BritainTreasuryTabled Answered 5 February 2025UIN 27077

The question

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of civil service pensions for the next 50 years.

Answered by Darren Jones

The Treasury’s central affordability measure for public service pensions is the projected pension benefit payments as a percentage of estimated GDP. This reflects the fact that most public service pension schemes are unfunded and financed through taxation, and tax revenues are closely related to GDP.

The OBR forecast in September 2024 that spending on public service pensions will fall from 1.9 per cent of GDP at present to 1.4 per cent over the long term (50 years).

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