Is it time to look again at costly police pensions?

North Yorkshire Police paid out pensions to 1,658 retired officers last year - at a time when it employed 1,663 serving policemen.

Humberside Police, meanwhile, has an estimated 1,326 serving officers - but 1,958 retired officers claiming their pensions.

Traditional police pensions allow officers to retire on a full pension, equivalent to two thirds of their final salary, after 30 years service. Some are aged less than 50 at the time, and many go on to do a second, full-time job while continuing to collect their pension.

A new pension scheme, introduced in April 2006, requires officers to serve for 35 years, with a minimum retirement age of 55. They get half their final salary as an annual pension, plus a lump sum payment. The new scheme applies only to officers who joined the service after April 6, 2006.

Police officers work long, antisocial hours, put their lives on the line in protecting the public, and are often subject to abuse and violence at the hands of the criminals they deal with.

Nevertheless, with most of the rest of us being told we may have to work beyond 65, and with final salary pension schemes becoming a thing of the past for many, police pensions are still very generous compared to most other people.

So, has the time come to look again at police pensions?

Yes... says Mark Wallace of the TaxPayers' Alliance

We all have to tighten our belts in order to make sure we can get by in these rough economic times. One area in which that is especially true is in the pensions sector.

The old-fashioned final salary pension schemes ceased to be practical or sustainable some 20 years ago in the private sector.

Private schemes that have to pay pensions from a fixed pot of money stored up during a person's career simply found the final salary deal too generous to finance any longer. So they were largely abandoned - only in the public sector did they continue.

The only way public sector schemes can afford to function is by the taxpayer endlessly topping them up and guaranteeing to make good further shortfalls in future.

That is both impractical and unfair - taxpayers struggle under a heavy burden already, with no one to top up or guarantee their pensions.

The taxpayer cannot continue to sustain public sector final salary pensions. That applies not only to the police (many civil servants and other staff enjoy even more generous deals) but to public employees in all areas, who must accept that times have changed.

The issue of early retirement is one that is specific to the police, and requires an appropriate and understanding response. The TaxPayers' Alliance certainly acknowledges that the police do a crucial and often dangerous job, and that should certainly be taken into account.

However, the situation where police officers regularly are pensioned off at 50 or even younger is an anomaly and is difficult to justify. No one is suggesting that 60-year-old PCs should have to confront knife-wielding kids or chase fit, young criminals, but it is important to find an appropriate solution that makes the best use of taxpayers' money and experienced officers.

Paying pensions to thousands of valuable ex-officers who are still of working age is a waste of money and of a valuable, experienced work force. It would be better to keep them on until the normal retirement age of 60 or 65 and employ them away from the frontline, perhaps dealing with the office work we know smothers frontline officers at the moment.

The police are understandably wary of change given the Government's recent shoddy behaviour, but it is crucial that public sector pensions are reformed - not to cheat officers, but to make the system sustainable. Similarly, it is a sad loss that each year thousands of experienced PCs retire when they still have several years of productive public service that they could provide.

Striking a good deal for all involved may be difficult, but it is important that we do so sooner rather than later.

The TaxPayers' Alliance is a non-partisan campaign group working for lower taxes and more efficient government

No... says Mark Botham, chairman of the North Yorkshire Police Federation

POLICE pensions have come under fire in recent weeks, notably from Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers' Alliance. He claims such pensions are an anachronism, something the private sector had rightly done away with 20 year ago.

However, the police service is not directly comparable to the private sector, nor should it be.

The police in this country occupy a unique status: we are neither public nor private sector, nor are we employed by the Government; we are officers of the Crown bearing a personal responsibility to the law.

We are subject to an unrivalled degree of scrutiny in our personal and professional lives, and it is only right and proper that our exceptional employment status is recognised and fairly compensated for.

The pension scheme as it stands is designed to pay out after 30 to 35 years' service - that is, after policemen and women have dedicated half a lifetime to selflessly performing a difficult, demanding and sometimes dangerous trade.

They pay 11 per cent of their pay towards their pension scheme, an amount that rivals, if not betters, most standard private contributory schemes. The police are already making short-term financial sacrifices in order to secure a long-term future.

Let us not forget that for anyone joining the service after April 5, 2006, they are part of a new police pension scheme where the earliest retirement age is 55 and the time it takes to accrue a full pension has been increased from 30 to 35 years' pensionable service.

No mention of this by Mr Wallace, nor of the fact that North Yorkshire Police Authority (and before them the county council) has consistently deemed it prudent to use money originally set aside for pensions purposes for other matters.

A recent comprehensive review modified the police pension scheme, to make it less of a burden for our employers, but ultimately acknowledged that it reflects the demands of the job.

A comfortable pension should not be too much to ask, following three decades' commitment to keeping the country safe.

I agree that times have changed, and the demands on the police have - and will - continue to rise. It is essential, however, to properly reward the hard-working police officers for their efforts to keep society safe.

Mr Wallace claims the TaxPayers' Alliance "acknowledge that the police do a crucial and often dangerous job"; if this was the case, they certainly would not begrudge us a safe and secure old age.

The facts...

A new Police Pension Scheme was introduced in April, 2006. New recruits are no longer eligible to join the old pension scheme, though most serving officers are still on the old scheme. The details of the schemes are as follows:

Old pension scheme for officers who joined before April 2006:

* To qualify for a full pension, officers have to serve for 30 years, with the minimum retirement age set at 48.5* Officers pay 11 per cent of their salary for their pension* They get a maximum of 40/60 (or two-thirds) of their final salary as an annual pension. Alternatively, they can give up 25 per cent of this and receive a lump sum on retirement.

* Their police pension is unaffected if they go on to take another full-time or part-time job after leaving the police - unless they rejoin the police, in which case the police authority has the discretion to abate their pension.

New pension scheme for officers who joined after April 2006:

* To qualify for a full pension, officers have to serve for 35 years, with the minimum retirement age set at 55* Officers pay 9.5 per cent of their salary for their pension* They get a maximum of 35/70 (or half) of their final salary as an annual pension, plus a lump sum on retirement equal to four times their annual pension* Their police pension is unaffected if they go on to take another full-time or part-time job after leaving the police - unless they rejoin the police, in which case the police authority has the discretion to abate their pension.

Police salaries in North Yorkshire, as of December 1 last year:

PC: starting salary: £21,534PC: two years experience: £25,434PC: top of scale: £33,810Police Sgt: starting salary: £33,810Police Sgt: top of scale: £37,998