MARK BYFORD, the deputy director-general of the BBC, is in line for pension payouts of almost £400,000 a year when he retires.
Mr Byford, 51, has amassed a pension pot worth £3.4million, one of the biggest ever seen in the public sector.
The latest estimate, published in a Sunday newspaper, was based on an analysis of figures published by the BBC and follows controversy over Mr Byford's travel expenses.
He claimed £4,878 for business class flights to the World Cup as well as almost £4,000 on flights to America last year.
Mr Byford, who joined the BBC at the age of 20 in 1979, received £485,000 in pay and other benefits last year. That could rise to almost £600,000 by 2019 in line with average wage inflation. With 40 years' service he would be entitled to two thirds of his salary as a pension, or £395,000 a year.
If bought as an annuity on the open market, this would require a total pension pot of at least £7million.
But the BBC is currently in consultation about plans to cap pay rises in pensionable pay to one per cent a year.
Although the cuts would curb his potential payouts, even if he left the corporation tomorrow he would be in line for a pension worth £215,000 a year, according to projections in the BBC's annual report.
The corporation defended the potential payout as "typical" of final salary schemes, which are still commonplace in the public sector. A spokesman added: "Mark Byford will be treated no differently from anyone else."
John Bingham
The Daily Telegraph (London)
July 19, 2010 Monday
Edition 1;
National Edition
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