The latest offer means you'll buy more pension every year, but what else is involved?

The government says it’s offered a better deal on public sector pensions which the major unions have agreed to. The main difference is that the accrual rate has been improved. This means that you’ll earn a bigger fraction of your average salary for every year that you’re a member of the public sector scheme than you would have done under the government’s old offer.

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The government is looking at changing the rules so it’s easier to move small pensions. Is it a good idea?

If you have several pension pots from previous jobs, do you know how much they’re worth and where they’re invested? The chances are you don’t. According to research by Aviva, 65% of women didn’t know the value of their pension pots, and 61% were in favour of combining their smaller pensions into one big ‘pot’. Yesterday the Department for Work and Pensions said it was thinking of changing the rules to make it easier for some people to combine their pensions.

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There's been far more heat than light in the public sector pensions debate. What could the changes mean?

I have to say that I’ve been rather dismayed by the coverage of the planned changes to the public sector pension scheme. It’s been over a year since Lord Hutton released his initial report into pensions, and several weeks since the government improved its offer. Yesterday’s announcement by the chancellor that there would be a pay rise of just 1% - and the revelation that 700,000 public sector jobs are to go – will have done little to cool the already heated debate.

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