HC Deb 09 June 1969 vol 784 cc954-5
47 and 48. Mr. Worsley

asked the Minister for the Civil Service (1) whether he is satisfied with the terms on which established civil servants are being retired early with the offer of another job at a lower salary; and if he will make a statement;

(2) whether the pension of an established civil servant compulsorily retired early is protected when he refuses another job at a lower salary.

The Paymaster-General (Mrs. Judith Hart)

A civil servant who is retired early and takes another job in the Civil Service at a lower salary may draw sufficient of any pension due to him to raise his income by way of salary plus pension to the level of the salary he was receiving on his retirement. He may refuse reemployment in a lower-paid job without loss of pension. I consider these to be satisfactory terms.

Mr. Worsley

Does the right hon. Lady agree that there is some discontent with these provisions in the Civil Service and that it is important that people should be encouraged to do this without any feeling of loss of status?

Mrs. Hart

The present arrangements are not unreasonable. However, as we look at the whole question of Civil Service superannuation in the course of the current review we shall be looking at this point in the light of recent circumstances.

Mr. Luard

Does not my right hon. Friend agree that there is considerable disquiet in the Foreign Service as a result of the fact that many senior Foreign Service officials have had to be retired through no fault of their own but simply because of a contraction in the size of the Foreign Service and the considerable recruitment when they joined? Is it not important that everything possible should be done to provide suitable alternative employment for these people?

Mrs. Hart

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, but I do not think that the present pension arrangements are any kind of deterrent to achieving this entirely sensible objective. But we are undertaking a review in the course of looking at the whole of the Civil Service superannuation arrangements and we shall bear this point very much in mind.