Pension pots belonging to the men in charge of steering the economy through the financial downturn have risen in the past year to a record £138million, The Times can reveal.

While the value of UK pension funds has plummeted by a quarter this year, the generous final-salary schemes of just over 200 top mandarins have risen by £16million.

Research by the Liberal Democrats of government accounts shows that 56 civil servants (seven more than last year) have pots worth more than £1million, which, if they had to buy an annuity, would secure an annual income of £70,000.

Someone with a defined contribution pension retires with a pot worth an average £25,000, which buys them an annual retirement income of about £1,700.

Among the civil servants with substantial pension money is Stephen Pickford, who works at the Treasury and has been a key player in the Government's £500billion bailout negotiations. He has a pension fund worth £1.1million, which would buy an annual pension income of nearly £80,000 on the open market.

Nicholas Macpherson, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, who has been part of Mr Brown's inner circle for eight years, has a pension fund worth £882,000, the equivalent of a yearly payment of more than £60,000.

Sir Gus O'Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service, has one of the best pensions in government, with an accumulated fund of more than £2million. If he had to convert this into an annuity, it would fetch an annual £145,000.

Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokeswoman, said: “While many people have stopped contributing to their own pension scheme due to the impact of rising bills on their income, this is the time to look again at how affordable pensions are for top civil servants.

“The Government must come clean about how much taxpayers are liable to pay for public sector pensions across the board as this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We need far greater transparency in the way the Government accounts for its liabilities and an independent commission to look at the options for reform. We must ensure that public sector schemes are fair and affordable for their members and taxpayers.”

The employer contribution in the classic Civil Service pension scheme is between 17.1 per cent and 26.5 per cent. The average employer contribution in the same type of scheme in the private sector is about 14 per cent. In the less generous defined contribution schemes in the private sector it is 5.8 per cent.

Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown, the independent financial adviser, said: “The problem is that there is no incentive for these people [in the Civil Service] to grasp the nettle and confront the growing apartheid between public and private sector pension provision. There's very much a sense of ‘I'm all right, Jack'. We need another review to look at the commitment the Government is making to public sector pensions and the divide between public and private pensions.”

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