Fury as BBC pensions bill soars to £2bn: Licence fee payers foot bill as boss gets £200,000 deal - and a £750,000 new job

Licence fee payers face a shocking £2 billion bill to meet the spiralling cost of the BBC pension scheme, which includes six-figure payouts to top executives.
An analysis of some of the staggering deals enjoyed by staff at the corporation reveals that one 55-year-old executive who took early retirement is receiving an annual pension of £200,000 - in addition to a £750,000-a-year salary from his new job.
The growing burden of these generous deals has contributed to a  £600 million increase in the BBC's pension fund deficit over the past year to more than £1.7 billion, amounting to nearly half its yearly revenue from the licence fee.
Last night, one Tory MP condemned the corporation's arrangements as 'a form of upper middle class benefit system' and called for an investigation.

Rewards: Former BBC executives John Smith (left) and Patrick Loughrey (right)

One executive benefiting is John Smith, who retired in December from his £337,000-a-year job as head of BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial wing, with a pension pot worth £5.8 million.
He walked out aged 55 with a lump sum pay-off of £1,038,000 and is  able to draw just over £197,000 a year immediately.
In addition to his BBC Worldwide post, since 2009 Mr Smith had been a non-executive director of Burberry on a salary of £72,000 a year.
Within three months of retiring from the BBC he became chief operating officer at the luxury brand on a salary of £575,000, plus an additional £172,500 annual cash payment in lieu of pension contributions.

 

If Mr Smith lives for another 25 years, he will receive a total of more than £4 million in payments from the BBC pension scheme alone.
Many other recent employees are also enjoying bumper deals, often as a supplement to other public sector pay packages. Dame Jenny Abramsky, the corporation's former radio chief, retired in 2008 with a pension pot worth £3.9 million, which pays her £190,000 a year.
She is now chairman of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, for which she receives a public  sector salary of £40,000.

Lord Patten with George Entwistle, who he appointed as the Director-General of the BBC last year

Patricia Hodgson, who took early retirement from her post of director of public policy in 2000, is able to draw her pension of £119,000 a year in addition to £80,000 a year for her work as deputy chair of broadcasting regulator Ofcom and chair of the School Teachers' Review Body.
Pat Loughrey, who quit as the BBC's director of nations and regions in 2009 with a £600,000 payoff, has a pension pot valued at  £1.5 million, paying him £107,000 a year. After leaving the BBC, Mr Loughrey, who is 57, became  warden of Goldsmith's College on a salary of £206,000 plus £33,000 in pension contributions.
Former deputy director general Mark Byford, 55, left in 2011 with a  £1 million payoff and a pension pot valued at £3.6 million - entitling him to an income of £210,000 a year.
George Entwistle, who quit as director general in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal with a £486,500 payoff, has a pot valued at £1.1 million, or £63,000 a year.
Former director general Mark Thompson, whose role in authorising millions of pounds of payoffs has come under scrutiny, has two BBC pensions.
The first was accrued between 1979 and 2001, when he left to become head of Channel 4, and is worth £70,000 a year.

Tory MP Rob Wilson said: 'Licence fee payers are angry about senior BBC management rewarding each other'

His second pension, built up as director general between 2004 and 2012, is worth £19,000 a year. The BBC admits in its annual report  that it has had to set aside £100 million in cash this year - more than Radio 4's annual budget - to help prop up the scheme.
But the sum amounts to a fraction of the total deficit of £1.7 billion, up from £1.1 billion a year ago.
The report lays the blame at 'the continued fall in corporate bond yields, which are used to determine the present value of the pension scheme liabilities'.
Last night Tory MP Rob Wilson said: 'Licence fee payers are becoming increasingly angry about senior BBC management rewarding each other with lavish pensions and payoffs, which amounts to a form of upper middle class benefit. There now needs to be a full investigation by the National Audit Office.'
A BBC spokesman said: 'Like a great many other employees in the UK, BBC staff have a pension scheme that is made up of their own contributions and those of their employer. The amount they will  be entitled to depends on a variety of factors.'
A spokeswoman for BBC Worldwide said that Mr Smith had transferred some of his own money into the BBC scheme. She added that his payoff and bonuses had been paid for out of commercial income rather than the licence fee.