Can't afford to pay for pensions

With reference to "Points on misguided view over pensions" (Starmail August 7).

The author, Glen Robson, will receive when he retires at the age of 51, a tax free lump sum of £120,000 and a taxable monthly income of £1,700, indexed for life.

When a member of the private sector pays into their own personal pension plan, they would have to achieve a pension plan worth £480,000 at the normal retirement age of 65 in order to receive their 25 per cent tax tee lump sum of £120,000.

Over a continuous working life of 49 years this means that the average worker would need to make gross contributions into their pension plan of about £816 per month.

How many people living in Shropshire, or anywhere else for that matter, do you think can afford to pay these amounts into a personal pension plan?

While I believe the majority of the public appreciates the work of a police officer, fire-fighter, paramedic etc, I also feet that the majority do not want to pay for the said person's pension when they cannot afford their own.

Mr Robson states that his final salary pension is part of his employment rights.

I cannot recall the Government asking the public if they would like to contribute before they could afford to contribute to their own.

David Masters, Shrewsbury