So anyone had any more thoughts on where those of us on AFPS 75 will stand if Cameron and his mob get into power next year? The Telegraph today doesn't make for comfortable reading in respect of pensions.
This would include a review of lucrative final-salary pension schemes which are now almost obsolete in the private sector.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, and George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, are determined to tackle the “pension apartheid” between the public and private sectors.
Mr Osborne has drawn up plans that would begin by looking at highly paid GPs.
He has identified how some GPs “retire”, taking a full pension, only to be re-employed shortly afterwards as a consultant within the NHS.
A senior Tory source said: “It is clear that this sort of practice has got to stop and this is the area we will look to tackle initially.”
Although far-reaching reforms to public pensions are unlikely to be retrospective, the proposals are certain to trigger an outcry from unions that will test Mr Cameron’s resolve if he wins power.
At the start of a wide-ranging Daily Telegraph series on the Conservatives, Mr Osborne today writes that the country can no longer afford the “large increases in public spending” over which Labour has presided.
And he condemns Gordon Brown for carrying on spending in an attempt to limit the damage to his election chances next year.
He writes: “Most other countries are looking for ways to turn the spending taps off, not to turn them up.”
Mr Osborne is wary about making a commitment before the election to scrap final salary pension schemes, but the inequity between what private sector workers retire on and the current public sector deals will be addressed.
Those lower paid public sector workers, including teachers, nurses and some council employees, will for the large part be left untouched by the Conservative clampdown.
There are five million public sector workers currently entitled to a state pension when they retire, at a cost to the taxpayer of up to £500,000 each.
Local government workers make up the largest number at 1.6 million, followed by 1.5 million NHS staff, 600,000 teachers, a similar number of civil servants, 200,000 members of the Armed Forces, 150,000 police officers and 50,000 firemen.
Most state employees still enjoy generous final salary pension schemes, which means their pension is based on the salary they retire on, with many also “index linked”, keeping pace with inflation.
Are there any members of the Forces Pension Society on here? What's the feeling amongst the FPS about any change of govt. Funnily enough, breakfast news had an interview with a representative of the senior civil service pensions society - he believed these pensions were sustainable!