Action needed to tackle unfunded public sector scheme liabilities - EXCLUSIVE

Conservative chief Treasury spokesman Philip Hammond challenged Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling to explain how they expected to cover the massive shortfall.

Hammond told PP: "If the forecasts by independent experts are right, every family in Britain will pay £43,000 to fund the pensions that public sector workers have been promised."

And he said that in the interests of fairness the government should revisit the concession it made to the unions in 2005, which allowed existing public sector workers to continue to retire at 60.

"It is in everyone’s interests to break down the barriers between public and private sector employment practices," he added.

The Confederation of British Industry head of pensions Neil Carberry estimated public sector pension liabilities stood at over £1trn – effectively doubling the national debt.

Independent financial adviser Hargreaves Lansdown calculated that some members of the armed forces receive pension contributions of more than 35pc from the state – compared to the average 6.1pc in the private sector.

Head of pensions research Tom McPhail said: "It is unfair to ask private sector workers to guarantee retirement security for the public sector without being able to achieve it themselves."

He also pointed out that public sector pension liabilities accrued in any given year were not accounted for as current expenditure – a practice which, in the private sector, would lead to "some interesting conversations with The Pensions Regulator".

The Institute of Economic Affairs estimated that public sector pensions cost every family an average of £900 a year.