Working for the government looks like the best way for UK employees to secure a decent pension. Public sector workers still have defined benefit pension schemes that will pay a proportion of salary when they retire. Moreover, those schemes are mostly backed by the taxpayer, rather than funded by a corporate sponsor that might go bust. Private sector employees increasingly save in defined contribution schemes and face uncertainty about the income they will provide in retirement.

Ros Altmann, an independent pensions expert, says public sector workers are the pensions aristocracy, and questions whether for anyone else, it is worth saving in a pension at all.