£140 a Year of YOUR Council Tax Goes to Pay Council Pensions!

The extra money is to bail out pension schemes for local government workers, which have been criticised as “gold-plated” and over-generous.

An investigation by this newspaper raised renewed criticism of the “final salary” pensions offered to council employees. Such pensions have been almost eradicated in the private sector.

The slump in share prices caused by the recession has hit pension fund investments hard and added to the scale of the problem.

Council chiefs admit that the situation was made worse when some local authorities took “pension holidays”, withholding contributions to their funds when the markets were strong.

In a Sunday Telegraph survey of local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales, 136 authorities covering 60 per cent of the population reported a total pension deficit of more than £21 billion.

Adjusting to reflect the national picture, the total size of the town hall pensions black hole is about £35 billion.

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