Ignoring a cabinet plea for restraint and amid a growing pensions crisis, MPs are seeking a generous increase in their final salary pension scheme.

A proposed new scheme now means that based on an MP's current salary of £55,118, a 20-year stint at Westminster would produce a pension of nearly £30,000.

Forum Response: Unison

Glyn Jenkins, head of pensions at Unison, told ePolitix.com: "Its official - final salary pension schemes are not dead, they are there for those who have the clout to control their own pensions, namely MPs and business directors. Final salary schemes are the answer to this pensions' crisis, and what's good enough for MPs is surely good enough for other workers.

"MPs may claim a limited shelf life, but what of ambulance workers who can't vote on their own pension rights but are forced out of work long before normal retirement age through ill-health? They don't benefit from early retirement schemes."

Forum Response: GMB

Cath Unsworth, national pensions officer at the GMB, told ePolitix.com: "We should all be so lucky to receive a platinum pension scheme.

"We hope that this signals the government's commitment to give all British workers a good pension scheme and hold employers to their responsibility."