Reform’s public-sector pensions plan could cost billions extra, union warns

Richard Tice said shifting from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution scheme would help the country avoid a slide into bankruptcy. Photograph: Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Reform UK’s plans to make public-sector pensions less generous could cost billions extra a year and cause a ticking timebomb in the public finances, a leading trade union has warned.

Prospect said the plans unveiled by the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, would damage the public finances rather than save money “and end up costing taxpayers tens of billions of pounds in the years to come”.