UK - Directors of the UK's top companies have amassed pension pots worth on average £3.8m (€3m), 26 times the average occupational pension of £8,736, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
 
In its eighth PensionsWatch survey - analysing the pension arrangements of 329 directors from 102 of the UK's top companies - the TUC found the average transfer value for a director's pension was £3.8m, an increase of £400,000 since last year, providing an average annual pension of £227,726.
 
The highest paid directors in each company have pension pots worth £5.26m, giving an average annual pension of £298,503.

The largest pension pot in this year's survey is worth more than £21m, providing an annual pension worth over £1.3m.

Joanne Segars, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), said that while it was logical for higher earners to accrue larger pension pots, she still had some concerns.

"Investors may have questions about fairness if boardroom pensions are much more generous than those on the shop floor," she said.

"Special arrangements like lower retirement ages and higher contribution rates need to be explained. We need much more transparency in this area."

The TUC's survey also showed that despite the move away from defined benefit schemes for ordinary staff, 54% of top directors are still in DB schemes, and many directors are in more than one scheme.
 
Nearly two-thirds of companies provide DB schemes for at least some directors.

The most common accrual rate was 1/30th, far more generous than the 1/60th to1/80th rate for the majority of ordinary members.
 
For directors in defined contribution schemes, the average company contribution was £134,760, representing an average contribution rate of 19%, around three times the rates normally available to employees (6.7%).
 
While ordinary workers face the prospect of working longer, with the state retirement age due to rise to 66 in 2016, most directors in DB schemes have a pension age of 60.

Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary, argued that companies refused to disclose the "lavish arrangements" reached with directors.

"While boardrooms are still paved with pensions gold, most staff now get no employer pension support, and even the minority who do have seen big cuts in pensions provision as schemes have closed or had benefits reduced," he said.

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