Private pensions cost taxpayer £37.6bn

In a damning new report, Murphy breaks down data from 2007-08 and finds total pensions payments made in the UK by both the public and private sector was £177.6bn. Murphy claims £57.6bn in state pensions was paid, £25bn was paid to public sector pensioners, and £35bn was given out by private sector pension providers. However, the total cost of government subsidies to the UK private pension industry was £37.6bn or around a quarter of the government's fiscal deficit. This, the report claims, means all private pension payments made that year were paid by the government. "The private...