Pensioned to breaking point

Yet it is important that some perspective is provided before the Chancellor, and his opponents, overwhelm voters with numbers and statistics.

This sum equates to less than two per cent of the country's overall budget deficit. And that is before "forgotten" issues – like Britain's growing pensions black hole – are factored into the equation.

It is a situation that is getting out of hand because of the Government's abiding failure to assess the implications of the financial crisis, and an ageing population, on pension funds.

In Yorkshire alone, university pension funds are already 385m in the red. Replicate this sum across Britain, add in the rest of the public sector (the shortfall at town halls is an estimated 53bn alone) and the deficit soon outstrips the national debt.

Yet where is the leadership on this issue?

It is certainly not coming from the Prime Minister; indeed, one of Gordon Brown's lasting political legacies has been the dismantling of private pensions while, at the same time, expecting taxpayers to

bankroll the public sector.

It is also impossible to see how universities can switch additional funds into their pension pots at a time when they are having to implement a programme of cuts, with some unions determined to take industrial action if the financial interests of their members are not protected.

Equally, it is difficult to see how the Government can bail out public sector pensions, given the parlous state of the Exchequer's finances and how such a move would antagonise, rightly so, all those hardworking people in the private sector whose retirement pots have diminished so markedly in value, and through no fault of their own.

The only way forward is through the fundamental reform of public sector pensions so that they can become more sustainable, but in a way that protects the interests of lowly-paid staff.

The reality, however, will be very different. The only mention of this issue in the Budget is likely to be over any increase in the state pension. And the most the next government (of whatever colour) will offer is yet another review – rather than any leadership on a policy that will only become more costly the longer that this challenge is ignored.