Senior politicians had been bracing themselves for double that figure.
But even though it is smaller than anticipated, by law the deficit has to be addressed and it could mean annual pension rises being cut below the cost of living.The deficit in the Public Employees Contributory Retirement Scheme (PECRS) has been caused partly by poor stock market performance but mostly by the fact that pensioners are living longer.It is a problem being faced by most private firms, many of which have closed final salary schemes.
There are no plans to do that in the public sector because of the difficulty it would cause in recruiting staff from the UK where most public employees are on final salary schemes.
