It is right that debate should flow on a day when teachers strike over proposals to alter their pension arrangements, but it is essential for debate to be fuelled by a deep knowledge and understanding of the problems facing the pensions system in this country. Such expertise was missing and so yet again, it's hard to hear key notes through the noise.

We are an ageing population living beyond our means in a debt ridden country. Truth be told, final salary pension schemes are just another debt we can't afford to finance. We woke up to the fact too late and something needs to be done to address it sooner rather than later.

What is most frustrating though is the recurrent plea not to turn the debate into a public versus private sector battle, despite being swiftly followed up by accusations that the private sector exacerbated the issue by shutting their own final salary pension schemes. They had no choice. If you look beneath the bonnet on some of these scheme's finances, it is frightening. Blissful ignorance saves most of us from knowing the facts. Closing such schemes wasn't and still isn't popular, but pragmatism has to win out and surely the debate should be about preserving pension benefits for the future so that pension schemes can actually afford to fund some benefits in retirement rather than compare a private sector with minimal pension provision against a public sector, which even after reform, may still provide pension benefits far in excess of those available to the masses.

We are not interested in party politics or the rights and wrongs of the proposed reform, but we would counter a point raised on Question Time that private sector bigwigs are hypocrites, as they hoover up huge chunks of tax relief on their massive contributions thus costing the taxpayer money. Noise vs reality proves that many higher earners saw their ability to make pension provision cut by over £200,000 per annum in recent times. Maybe it's an insensitive point to raise post credit crunch, but it serves to highlight the medicine will all have to take in an effort to refill the coffers.

That is not to say we agree with the proposals or don't sympathise with those people who are genuinely affected by potential reform, but this debate shouldn't just focus on teachers, it should focus on the whole complexity of our pensions system, the never ending new legislation and the forthcoming NEST pension scheme, which is intended to affect all private sector workers by commencing the journey to compulsory pension membership - I didn't hear the affordability of this reform debated on Question Time, but it is worthy of just as much attention.

As somebody who knows the value of occupational pension scheme benefits, but also sees the struggle of surviving on the basic state pension, let's hope someone lowers the volume and start an informed debate to benefit us all.

Tags: pensions, benefits

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