A 50-year-old on pound;28,000pa who still wanted to retire at 60 with comparable benefits would have to save an extra pound;500 a month! The corresponding amounts for a 40, 30 and 22-year-old would be pound;200, pound;100 and pound;50 respectively.

A final irony is that the pension rules would only allow them to save an extra pound;200 a month in additional voluntary contributions.

I worked in financial services for five years and learned the importance of long-term planning to achieve a decent pension.

However, it would be immoral to impose changes on older teachers for whom long-term planning is not possible.

I hope the working party will re-think their proposals and will drop changes to the pension rules for existing teachers. If they do go ahead with changes it is vital that they take into account the exponential effect of age as illustrated by the figures above.

Paul Tomlinson 36 Kilmiston Drive Portchester Fareham, Hampshire