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01-Dec-08 11:15 [Pensions]
Cameron aims for public sector pension changes Conservative leader David Cameron has stated his intention to increasingly move towards defined contribution pension schemes in the public sector and not final salary programmes, it has emerged.
Mr Cameron referred to the current situation as an "apartheid" of pensions, where public sector workers were being rewarded more handsomely than their private sector counterparts.
According to party representatives, the announcement signalled the party's direction and not a definite choice of policy, which has caused a number of unions to react.
Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, told the Financial Times that the average public sector pension was not particularly generous, paying out an average £7,000 a year.
Commenting on the proposition, Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Abandoning personal accounts would at best be a wholesale capitulation to pensions industry vested interests.
He continued: "At worst it would destabilise the whole system, leaving the country without a comprehensive pensions system."
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