Top directors are retiring at 60 on an average final salary pension worth over £3 million.

This is an increase of £300,000 in a year and enough to provide a pension of £193,000 a year – more than 25 times the average occupational pension of £7,500 a year.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) annual Pensions Watch survey finds that directors of the UK’s top performing companies have amassed pensions worth nearly £1 billion.

Only a minority of the companies have money purchase (rather than salary related) pensions for at least some of their directors. But, say the survey authors, these can also be extremely generous – one director received nearly £1 million in a year and three others had more than £300,000 paid into their scheme.

The news has angered the TUC; its general secretary Brendan Barber commented: “Britain’s boardroom bonanza does not stop on retirement. Too many top directors have gone on closing or cutting schemes for their workforce, while keeping gold-plated pensions for themselves.”

The biggest final salary pension pot in the survey tops £21 million – £2 million more than the biggest last year – and would pay the director over £1 million a year. Five directors have a pension pot worth over £12 million.

In June, HR Zone reported on the plight of three-quarters of workers quizzed as part of a survey that said they expect to work beyond the age of 65 by 2017 to top up pension funds.