The TUC has published a public sector pensions myth-buster, which shows:

• that schemes are not gold-plated, with half of public sector pensions in payment worth less than £5,600 a year. The mythbuster links to Prospect's YouGov poll of 2,500 in February 2011 where the average respondent believed people should get £17,088

• that public service pensions are not unreformed, with two major changes having already reduced the value of schemes by 25 per cent

• that public sector schemes are not unsustainable, with costs falling from 1.9 per cent of GDP now to 1.4 per cent by 2060

• that the government are not protecting the low-paid, with part-time staff earning £8,000 a year not protected from the changes.

Meanwhile, in a news release last week, Prospect's pensions officer Neil Walsh commented on findings by the Office for Budget Responsibility that gross public service pension payments are projected to fall from 2 per cent of GDP in 2015-16 to 1.4 per cent in 2060-61.

He said: "Far from adding to ministers' arguments that further reform is necessary these projections totally undermine the case the government has been making to date."