An elite of super-rich company bosses is enjoying unprecedented wealth which does not stop building up just because they retire, according to an executive pension plan survey undertaken by the TUC.

To go with their astronomical salaries, massive pension pots totalling almost £1bn have been amassed by the directors of the UK’s top 102 companies.

This enables their senior executives to retire at 60 on an average pension of £3m – enough to provide an annual retirement income of £193,000, more than 25 times the average occupational pension of £7,500 a year.

The biggest final salary pension plan totals £21m and research into company reports reveals that this belongs to Lord Browne, who recently parted from BP in newsworthy circumstances, and pays him almost £1m a year.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Britain’s boardroom bonanza does not stop on retirement. Too many top directors have closed or cut pension plan schemes for their own workers, while keeping gold-plated pensions for themselves.”

He continued: “Top executive pay has already created a new group of the super-rich who float free from the rest of society. The report shows this doesn’t stop with at retirement.”

Former Vodafone deputy chief executive Sir Julian Horn-Smith has a pension plan pot of £15.2m; former chairman of catering group Compass, Sir Francis Mackay retired with a pot valued at £15.8m; and Roger Urwin, ex-boss of National Grid, trousered the proceeds of a £12.7m scheme.