£225bn 'taken from pensioners'

Occupational pension schemes have lost between £150 and £225 billion in growth in tax grabs since the 1990s.

The TaxPayers' Alliance claims the removal of pension ACT relief has hit retirement savings hard.

At the some time the body claims political meddling and managerial incompetence have pushed the basic state pension down 20 per cent from its 1950 level relative to earnings.

Terry Arthur, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "The UK pensions system has failed to provide a decent retirement income for many people and has been a painful lesson in the limitations of government."

The pension divide between the public and private sectors is growing, with over 17,000 retired public sector employees having retirement benefits worth £1 million each.

Unfunded public sector pension liabilities are estimated to exceed £1 trillion, over 70 per cent of GDP.

Corin Taylor from TaxPayer's Alliance, added: "It is not right for taxpayers to be subsidising million pound retirement benefits for the public sector elite while seeing the value of their own pensions plummet."

The number of active members of private sector occupational schemes has fallen by 41 per cent in the past 12 years, with an even greater fall in defined benefit scheme members.