A QUARTER of North Yorkshire Police officers have served 22 years or more with the force.

This means hundreds of officers will be protected from changes to the force's pension plans next year, which will see the eligible pensionable age rise to 60, and the final salary pension replaced with a 'career average' scheme.

Of the 1437 serving officers within North Yorkshire Police, 367 (25.5 per cent), have served 22 years or more. In Humberside, 398 of the 1747 serving officers (22.8 per cent), are in the same situation.

Both local forces are higher than the national average of 21.4 per cent, and will mean more than 700 officers can retire after 30 years' service with a pension based on their final salary.

Mike Stubbs, chair of the North Yorkshire Police Federation, said the news was "I think what we will inevitably see is it will make it more difficult for people to stay in the job.

"It's coming, it's happening, but I think people will come into the job and perhaps find it's not what they thought it would be and the money in their pocket at the end of the month is not sufficient for people to live on. It's a very complex matter."

Since 2011, officers' contributions to their pension schemes has risen from 11 per cent to 14.25 per cent. The pension scheme which allowed officers to retire on a full pension after 30 years’ service closed in 2006. Officers who joined after April 2006 had to complete 35 years' service to receive a full pension.

More changes to the pension scheme are currently being drafted by the Home Office, and will be brought in next year. With the exception of those who had less than 10 years left to serve from April 1, 2012, all existing pensions will be transferred over to this new scheme which will require officers to serve until the age of 60