Early Retirement

HC Deb 20 January 2003 vol 398 cc53-4W

Mr. Drew

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the cost of early retirement for the public sector in each of the last five years. [92073]

Mr. Boateng

Early retirements are the responsibility of individual public sector employers. The costs of making the early retirement are charged directly to employers' budgets and information about total costs is not held centrally. However, the costs of ill health pensions are borne by each pension scheme, and such centrally-collected information as there is was included in the report of the "Review of Ill Health Retirement in the Public Sector", published by the Treasury in July 2000.