Call to curb pensions of 'millionaire mandarins'

Liberal Democrats, who compiled the figures from Whitehall departmental accounts, said the generous taxpayer-funded index-linked packages should be "consigned to the history books".

Pensions spokesman Lord Oakeshott called for an independent commission to reform the system and bring the pensions of "millionaire mandarins" more in line with the reality for most private sector workers who can no longer access final salary schemes.

The 188 top Whitehall chiefs listed in accounts for 2008/09 have a combined pension pot worth 133m – an average of 708,904 each, according to the figures.

Some 58 enjoy pots worth more than 1m each, which will translate into pensions of 50,000 a year or more after retirement.

The largest pots were in the Ministry of Defence, where 12 senior civil servants had an average of 1,438,000 each in their schemes. The most valuable pension went to Chief of Defence Staff Sir Jock Stirrup, whose pot has a cash equivalent transfer value of 2.55m, equating to an annual pension of about 130,000 as well as a lump sum of about 380,000.

Leigh Lewis, permanent secretary at the Department of Work and Pensions, has a pot worth 1.9m and can retire with a pension of about 80,000 a year as well as a tax-free lump sum of 250,000, 50 times the annual basic state pension, said the Liberal Democrats.

Top civil servants enjoy unlimited index-linked pensions as well as tax-free lump sum payments when they retire. The UK Statistics Authority recently reported that the average age of retirement in the senior civil service in the 12 months to March 2008 was 58.

Lord Oakeshott said: "These millionaire mandarins' pension pots should be consigned to the history books at a time when final-salary pension schemes are almost extinct for private sector employees.

"Mandarins with their millionaire pension pots are like the landowners of yesteryear driving around in their gas-guzzling Rolls-Royces – a magnificent spectacle but unfair and unaffordable for ordinary people who are forced to cough up.

"Retirement at 58 is cloud cuckoo land for most private sector workers, many of whom find their pension savings shot to pieces. It's time to put the lid on these monster pension pots and set up an independent commission to make public sector pensions fair and affordable for the whole country."