A system that gives retired Euro MPs subsidised pensions could end up costing taxpayers millions more than planned because its terms are too generous.
Pressure is growing for payment cuts after new figures showed the fund had a black hole of €243 million (£188 million) at the end of 2014.
The “actuarial deficit” for the European parliament’s “voluntary pension fund” grew by 17 per cent that year as many MEPs retired after EU elections to cash in on the perk.
British taxpayers have already contributed more than £100 million to the fund which is expected to go bust in 2026 leaving the public purse to pick up the bill for the growing deficit.
Despite being closed to new beneficiaries in 2009, the fund, which has 1,113 members including serving and retired MEPs, will be paying out generous second pensions for several decades.
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Under the 1993 scheme, MEPs were entitled to a second or additional pension, worth more than £27,500 a year after 10 years in office.
Membership of the fund, to which taxpayers paid £2 for every £1 contributed by MEPs, is secret but leaks seven years ago named some beneficiaries.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, is among at least 13 serving British MEPs who will benefit as is Syed Kamall, who leads the European Conservatives, and Glenis Willmott, who heads Labour’s parliamentary party in Europe.
The second pension comes on top of a first pension, worth £13,760 for five years spent in office, which is fully funded by the taxpayer.
Bill Newton Dunn, a long-serving Liberal Democrat MEP, who lost his East Midlands seat two years ago, was a beneficiary and, with the perk, now has a combined pension pot with an estimated value of more than £100,000 a year.
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Peter Skinner, a former Labour MEP currently on trial over allegations that he abused parliamentary expenses, has combined annual pensions after 20 years in office estimated to be worth more than £66,000 a year when he reaches retirement age.
The latest deficit figure for the second pension fund is revealed in a report from parliament’s budgetary control committee that will be voted on by MEPs later this spring.
The report urges the parliament “to decrease the liabilities of this fund” and to consider measures “to decrease the retirement benefits for the participant members of the fund”.