Those of us in the private sector often look on jealously at the generous final salary pensions of our civil servant cousins, but will the proposed withdrawal of the higher rate pension relief from April 2011 leave high earning civil servants with a bit of a nasty shock in the form of a tax bill for the higher rate relief claw backs on their pension funds. I’m no actuary, but the value of a personal pension fund would need to be in the region of about £2.5 to £3million to pay an equivalent pension to that of a public sector worker on £180,000 with a final salary scheme.  I estimate (on a strictly back of an envelope calculation) that the claw back of higher rate tax relief on the annual pension input required to fund such a scheme would be in the region of £8,000 to £10,000. The interim measures which came into effect from budget day suggest that any such claw back would be assessed directly on the taxpayer via their self assessment. From a quick Google search it seems that Gordon Brown is the only MP with a ministerial salary over £150,000. I wonder if his nodding approval on budget day was because he knows that come April 2011 it will be David Cameron and not him who will be having his wallet plundered!!