After years of non-stop upheaval in pensions regulation, the consensus among PLSA members was that the Chancellor’s Spring Statement was gratifyingly dull.

This lack of news gave commentators more time to dig into the accompanying documents. The ‘Economic and Fiscal Outlook’ produced by the Office of Budget Responsibility. A substantial part of this bill is, of course, the UK’s share of future EU pension liabilities.

Some newspapers managed to generate a ‘shock, horror’ headline from the OBR’s ‘revelation’ that the UK would still be making annual payments to cover our share of Eurocrats’ pensions for many decades to come – until 2064, in fact.

The OBR’s analysis draws on research by Eurostat and a quick check of this document shows that the 2064 date arises simply because it marks the end of the standard 50-year actuarial forecast period on which the EU paper is based.

In fact, the UK’s liability will continue for many years after that date (although the amounts will have declined to a relatively modest £50 million a year by then). Common sense supports this – a 30 year-old Briton who joined the EU services in the last year or two and who lives until his or her 90s could still be receiving a pension in the 2080s.

If they have a surviving spouse who is significantly younger, then that person could still be receiving EU payments in the early years of the 22nd century. Whatever your view of Brexit, it’s clear that the costs of EU membership will rumble on for longer than even the media commentators imagine.

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