Pension boost for Consignia boss

DEPARTING Consignia boss John Roberts got a bumper pension increase as experts warned that ordinary postal workers face a £2bn shortfall in their retirement scheme.

Roberts, due to retire this year, saw his pension entitlement rise by a third to just under £150,000 a year. That rise would cost £564,835 to fund on the open market. He also received £225,852 salary, up from £219,314 last year. Consignia's annual report reveals that finance director Marisa Cassoni was the highest-paid director, on £308,532. Chairman Allan Leighton was paid £21,093.

There are mounting fears over Consignia's £15.7bn pension fund, one of the biggest in Britain with around 400,000 members. In March, it had a small £72m surplus.

But analysts say the fund, with three- quarters of its assets in shares, has plunged since then as stock markets went into freefall.

'The deficit now is likely to be £2bn,' said one senior industry source. 'The cost of paying these pensions might ultimately fall on the taxpayer.' Consignia said: 'If we need to make extra contributions into the fund, we will do so.'

Auditors Ernst & Young warned that there is ' fundamental uncertainty' over whether the group can be considered a going concern.

Consignia, changing its name back to Royal Mail, lost £318m for the year and says it needs £2.4bn over three years to run the national post office network.