In the latest round of public sector redundancies, big sums were offered to people to persuade them to give up their jobs.

These sums have been far too generous in many cases, paid too early to people in their 50s.

This happened at the BBC, in local government, the civil service and publicly owned banks.

The day is fast approaching when the country won’t be able to afford these pensions at all, never mind to people in their 50s.

Parliament is supreme and can overturn these agreements by simply passing an act. Can we please get on with it so we can protect the income of the oldest lowest-paid public sector pensioners?

We need a discussion now about how much of these pensions we are going to pay in future. Otherwise no one will be getting paid at all when the cost of government borrowing climbs from 2% to a mere 5%.

We have to rethink our priorities and protect the poorest older pensioners’ income.

Nigel Boddy, former Brighton resident, now living in Darlington, Co Durham