asked the Minister for Finance the additional cost to the Exchequer of providing retirement pensions on a full pension basis to all existing professional and technical civil servants.
Written Answers. - Civil Service Pensions.
149.
In the absence of readily available information as to the actual and potential service of each individual professional and technical officer it is not possible to give a firm estimate of the cost referred to in the question. However, on the basis of a sample of expected age requirements in 1973-74, it is roughly estimated that it would cost £60,000 a year initially, rising to £220,000 a year as the pension charge built up, to give serving professional and technical officers on retirement at the age of 65 superannuation benefits based on 40 years service instead of on actual service.
The tentative nature of this estimate must be stressed, as well as the fact that it makes no allowance for the costs involved in revising existing pensions and widows' and children's pensions, providing future pension increases on higher pensions, and claims from other sectors of the public service for a similar concession, all of which would add considerably to the cost.