From "The Telegraph"

BBC executives are topping-up their pensions from a secret fund despite asking staff to accept cuts in their own retirement packages, it has emerged.

Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC, along with eight executive board members are understood to have access to a multi-million pound pension fund, while other members are excluded.

The staff have a cap on their pensions, but the board receives top-ups that allows them to effectively manoeuver around the rules.

The BBC’s annual report shows Mr Thompson earning £838,000, but this figure includes £163,000 listed as “other remuneration”, which is understood to be a pension perk.

Staff recruited before May 31, 1989, are not subject to the £123,600 limit. So deputy director general Mark Byford’s £475,000 salary is expected to give him a £400,000 pension, one of the biggest in the public sector.

Thompson, who left the BBC in 2002 to head Channel 4 before rejoining in 2004, heads the top-up league table on £163,000.

Experts accused the BBC of operating one rule for the elite and another for everyone else.

Tom McPhail, a pensions expert at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “A lot of the BBC’s employees will be shocked to discover that executives still enjoy the benefits of an arrangement established more than 20 years ago, which is completely at odds with the restrictions that they are looking to place on staff today.”

The BBC refused to discuss the figures, but issued a statement saying: “In addition to the changes to the pension scheme that the BBC is proposing we are also reviewing all aspects of Pension provision including that for senior managers. We will announce these together with any other changes to the proposals after the consultation closes.”

Earlier this month, the BBC proposed dramatic changes to its pensions, which could more than halve the retirement income of some workers.

The decision to overhaul the broadcaster’s current scheme – which offers members a pension based on their average earnings during their career – was taken in a bid to address a £2billion deficit.

Pension deficits have suffered due to the poor economic climate which means companies are unable to fulfill their pension promises.

The black hole in Britain’s biggest final salary schemes is expected to reach a record of £140 billion within the next year.

By:-
Myra Butterworth, Personal Finance Correspondent. Daily Telegraph.

Source:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/7909050/BBC-executives-receiv...