U.K.: Pensions blunder: Xmas present Darling could have done without

. LONDON, England / The First Post / December 16, 2008 Hundreds of thousands of public sector pensioners, including civil servants and ex-soldiers, are facing a claw-back after the Christmas holiday for a blunder by the Government agency, Xafinity, which has made over-payments. The Cabinet Office will confirm in a statement being rushed out on Tuesday that the agency has been paying the public sector pensioners too much for years. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, said the claw-back would not be retrospective. Instead, it will be taken from future payments. That will not come as any comfort to the pensioners who are going to see their public sector pensions cut back. It puts a fresh complexion on the popular view that public sector workers have been feather-bedded with final salary pension schemes that the rest of us can only dream about. The disaster facing the pensioners was revealed by Vince Cable, the Lib Dem treasury spokesman, who compared it to the blunder at Revenue and Customs over the loss of data discs for 25 million people. Cable rightly said the Chancellor needs this news like a hole in the head. Cable said he had been told to keep it quiet until the pensioners could be notified, which they were over the weekend. The extent of the sums involved was not clear but it's no wonder that Darling is looking greyer than ever. © Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited