A report by an employers' group called for an independent commission to examine the financial rules, costs, and levels of taxpayer subsidy that underpinned public sector pensions. It said that there should be a debate on much-needed reform of the pension schemes, the majority of which were not funded by any pension 'pot' and would place a 'massive and growing burden' on future taxpayers.
Source: Clearing the Pensions Fog: Achieving transparency on public sector pension costs, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Report | CBI press release | TUC press release | PCS press release | Guardian report | FT report | People Management report | Personnel Today report | BBC report | Professional Pensions report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report presented the findings of a qualitative study of employees without workplace pension provision to understand why they might decide to stay in or opt out of the personal accounts scheme when it was introduced in 2012.
Source: Emily Gray, Paul Harvey and Joe Lancaster, Why People May Decide to Remain in or Opt out of Personal Accounts: Report of a qualitative study, Research Report 551, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2008-Dec
The Banking Bill was given a third reading. The Bill would create a 'framework for protecting bank depositors', and allow the Bank of England and other authorities to intervene when a bank got into severe difficulties.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Debate 17 December 2008, columns 1118-1132, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | CBI press release | NHF press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report examined the extent and nature of pension provision among private sector employers in Great Britain in 2007. It covered the proportion of firms providing pensions, the extent of employee membership of employer pension schemes, the types of provision, joining mechanisms, and contribution rates. The report also outlined the main reasons for provision or non-provision of pensions, and examined recent and planned changes in provision.
Source: John Forth and Lucy Stokes, Employers' Pension Provision Survey 2007, Research Report 545, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-Dec
A report by a committee of MPs said that the government should, without further delay, accept the Ombudsman's findings of maladministration in the Equitable Life affair (a life assurance company that got into serious financial difficulties in 2000). It also strongly supported the Ombudsman's recommendation for the creation of a compensation scheme to pay for the losses that had been suffered by Equitable Life's members as a result of maladministration.
Source: Justice Delayed: The Ombudsman's report on Equitable Life, Second Report (Session 2008-09), HC 41, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | FT report | BBC report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Dec
The government published its response to a consultation on the scope for risk-sharing in occupational pensions. It said that it would look further at how collective defined-contribution schemes might work in practice: but it had decided not to pursue conditional indexation, as the consultation did not provide sufficient evidence that it would have a significant impact on continuing defined-benefits provision.
Source: Risk Sharing Consultation: Government Response, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: Response | DWP press release | Consultation document | TUC press release | ACA press release
Date: 2008-Dec
A paper said that population ageing would reduce the working population relative to the number of pensioners by one-third over the next 30 years. The challenge presented by this development was how best to support pensioners' incomes without suppressing the net incomes of the working population, and capital accumulation, too much.
Source: John Ermisch, Population Ageing: Crisis or Opportunity?, Working Paper 2008-38, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper
Date: 2008-Dec
The government published its response to a consultation on flexible retirement and pension provision (published in October 2007), and sought views on the next steps, including the possibility of further regulations to facilitate the provision of flexible retirement practices.
Source: Flexible Retirement and Pension Provision, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: Report | Professional Pensions report
Date: 2008-Dec
The government published a Saving Gateway Accounts Bill. The new accounts would be aimed at getting people on lower incomes to save more. The government would contribute 50 pence for every one pound saved – with savers able to build up government contributions of up to £300.
Source: Saving Gateway Accounts Bill, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Methodist Church press release | ICAEW press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Dec
Three linked reports examined attitudes to reforms contained in the Pensions Act 2008 aimed at encouraging wider participation in private pension saving – include a duty on employers to automatically enrol all eligible workers into qualifying workplace pension provision from 2012, and to provide a minimum contribution towards pension saving for those employees who participated.
Source: Catherine Grant, Alice Fitzpatrick, Polly Sinclair and Jeri-lee Donovan, Employers' Attitudes and Likely Reactions to the Workplace Pension Reforms 2007: Report of a quantitative survey, Research Report 546, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040) | Laura Tredwell and Andrew Thomas, Understanding Employers' Likely Responses to the Workplace Pension Reforms 2007: Report of a qualitative study,
Links: Report 546 | Summary | Report 547 | Summary | Report 550 | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2008-Dec
The government announced that it would introduce amendments to the Pensions Bill in order to ease the administrative and financial burdens on employers running pension schemes. Employers would be able to 'self certify' that their pension scheme met the quality standard based on the expected value of pension contributions to be made over the course of each coming year.
Source: Press release 6 November 2008, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: DWP press release | CBI press release | People Management report
Date: 2008-Nov
The government announced a review of the law requiring that any pension scheme deficit be cleared in cases where a company was taken over or restructured.
Source: The Draft Financial Assistance Scheme and Incapacity Benefit (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2009, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: Consultation document | TUC press release | FT report (1) | FT report (2) | BBC report | People Management report | Professional Pensions report
Date: 2008-Nov
Campaigners said that occupational pension schemes had lost at least £150 billion in growth as a result of the abolition of tax relief on pension funds in the 1990s. The number of active members of private sector occupational schemes had fallen by 41 per cent in the previous 12 years, with an even greater fall in defined-benefit scheme members. Were this trend to continue, there would be no active members of private sector occupational schemes in 12 years' time. Public sector pensions had not suffered from the 'destructive political meddling and punitive tax rises' that had bedevilled private sector schemes, and instead were being increasingly propped up by taxpayers.
Source: Terry Arthur and Corin Taylor, The UK Pensions Crisis, TaxPayers' Alliance (0845 330 9554)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Nov
A report presented findings from a qualitative study designed to identify what information people believed they might need to support their decision to remain in, or opt out of, a workplace pension scheme.
Source: Claire McAlpine, Helen Marshall and Andrew Thomas, The Information People May Require to Support Their Decision to Remain In, or Opt out of, a Workplace Pension, Research Report 540, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-Nov
The financial services watchdog increased the compensation limit for bank deposits from £35,000 up to a total of £50,000 for each customer's claim, with effect from 7 October 2008. It also set out proposals to improve the overall compensation scheme, and to ensure consistency in respect of compensation limits for investment, insurance, and home finance.
Source: Financial Services Compensation Scheme: Review of Limits, Financial Services Authority (0845 608 2372)
Links: Report | FSA press release | FT report | Conservative Party press release
Date: 2008-Oct
Researchers examined the feasibility of quantifying the running costs of pension schemes (excluding the costs of benefits and levies). They concluded that it would be feasible to undertake a large-scale survey of scheme running costs covering both trust-based and contract-based schemes.
Source: John Leston, Margaret Watmough and Jennifer Ross, Costs of Running Pension Schemes: Findings of a feasibility study, Research Report 535, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-Oct
A think-tank report examined the impact of government reforms to public sector pensions – including increasing the normal pension age to 65 for new entrants, increasing the level of contributions made by members to some of the schemes, and improving the rate at which members accrued pension rights. The reforms had reduced the average value of public sector pension schemes by around 3 percentage points, from 24 per cent to 21 per cent of salary – compared with 20 per cent for a typical private sector defined-benefit scheme, and 7 per cent for a typical private sector defined-contribution pension.
Source: Adam Steventon, An Assessment of the Government's Reforms to Public Sector Pensions, Pensions Policy Institute (020 7848 3744)
Links: Report | PPI press release | TUC press release | UNISON press release | Consumer Association press release | Conservative Party press release | Guardian report | People Management report
Date: 2008-Oct
A new book examined the economics of pension design. Pension systems had multiple objectives – consumption smoothing, insurance, poverty relief, and redistribution. Good policy needed to bear them all in mind. Any choice of pension system had risk-sharing and distributional consequences.
Source: Nicholas Barr and Peter Diamond, Reforming Pensions: Principles and policy choices, Oxford University Press (01536 741727)
Links: Summary | LSE press release
Date: 2008-Oct
The government announced that it would propose an amendment to the Pensions Bill to allow people to buy up to an additional 6 years of voluntary national insurance contributions, over and above those permitted under the existing time limits, in order to enjoy a higher state pension. It said that the measures would offer a fairer deal to women and carers. They would benefit thousands of women who traditionally had incomplete national insurance records and therefore often received a low state pension. The proposals would apply to those who reached state pension age between 6 April 2008 and 5 April 2015 and who already had 20 qualifying years on their national insurance record, taking account of home responsibilities protection.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Answers 28 October 2008, column 1577W, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DWP press release | TUC press release | Consumer Association press release | Help the Aged press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report | FT report | People Management report
Date: 2008-Oct
A report by a committee of MPs said that more statutory protection was needed for savers who spread their money across different parts of the same organization, because the Financial Services Compensation Scheme was 'per person per bank' – meaning that the £35,000 compensation limit applied to the total savings that someone held with all institutions operating under the same banking licence.
Source: Banking Reform, Seventeenth Report (Session 2007-08), HC 1008, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Sep
Researchers examined awareness of deferral policies in relation to state pension entitlement. (In April 2005, a reduced period of qualification for a weekly increase or increment to entitlement was introduced, together with the option of receiving a one-off lump sum.)
Source: Nick Coleman, Rosie McLeod, Oliver Norden and Alice Coulter, State Pension Deferral: Public awareness and attitudes, Research Report 526, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-Sep
An annual survey found that the directors of the largest companies had amassed pension pots that averaged around £3 million each, providing an annual pension of £201,700 a year – 25 times the average workplace pension that ordinary workers received (£8,100).
Source: PIRC, PensionsWatch 2008: Analysing the pensions of top company directors, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Report | TUC press release | Personnel Today report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Sep
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice advised against support for a challenge to the United Kingdom's compulsory retirement age of 65.
Source: The Incorporated Trustees of the National Council on Ageing (Age Concern England) v Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Advocate General/European Court of Justice (00 352 43031) 23 September 2008
Links: Opinion | EHRC press release | Age Concern press release | TUC press release | EFA press release | CIPD press release | Personnel Today report | Guardian report | People Management report
Date: 2008-Sep
A qualitative research project examined attitudes to pensions among employers and the financial services industry, with particular reference to changes introduced in April 2006 aimed at simplifying the pension tax regime. There was no clear consensus about the benefits and disadvantages of the new regime.
Source: Sally Malam, Nicholas Gilby, Alice Coulter, Claire Bassett and Emma Jordan, Pension Taxation Reform: A baseline study of employers and the financial services industry, Research Report 56, HM Revenue & Customs (020 7438 6420)
Links: Report | Technical paper
Date: 2008-Aug
A qualitative research project examined people's attitudes to pensions, with particular reference to changes introduced in April 2006 aimed at simplifying the pension tax regime. People were generally aware of the need to save for their retirement, but differed in the priority they placed on this and whether they thought they could afford to do so. Pension provision was driven by the interplay between attitudes to pensions, financial resources, and other priorities. These personal factors had much more of a bearing on whether someone saved than factors such as tax relief. Tax relief could move pensions up the list of priorities, but was not able to overcome entrenched mistrust of pension schemes or free up the resources for people to invest.
Source: Opinion Leader, Pensions Taxation Reforms: A baseline study of individuals, Research Report 57, HM Revenue & Customs (020 7438 6420)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Aug
A report presented findings from qualitative research with employers aimed at exploring and understanding their attitudes to risk-sharing in pension schemes.
Source: Andrew Thomas and Anthony Allen, Employer Attitudes to Risk Sharing in Pension Schemes: A qualitative study, Research Report 528, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-Aug
A think-tank report said that there was a need to increase involvement in child trust funds among some parents, and to expand the number of funds receiving regular contributions from family and friends. ('Child trust funds' were launched by the government in 2005 as a universal saving scheme for children.)
Source: Jim Bennett, Elena Ch vez Quezada, Kayte Lawton and Pamela Perun, The UK Child Trust Fund: A successful launch, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100) and Aspen Institute
Date: 2008-Jul
The official ombudsman called on the government to apologize to Equitable Life policyholders for failures in regulation, and to establish and fund a compensation scheme for policyholders. (Equitable Life was an insurance company which encountered severe financial problems in 2000, causing it to cut the value of pension policy payments.)
Source: Equitable Life: A decade of regulatory failure, HC 815, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | PHSO press release | Hansard | Liberal Democrats press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report | FT report
Date: 2008-Jul
The government began consultation on proposals to strengthen protection for bank depositors. Depositors in a failing bank would have their first £50,000 covered by a new guarantee scheme, compared with 90 per cent of the first £35,000 under the existing system.
Source: Financial Stability and Depositor Protection: Further Consultation, Cm 7436, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Consultation document | HMT press release | Consumer Association press release | BBA press release | ABI press release | IMA press release | CBI press release | FT report | Guardian report | Telegraph report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Jul
The insurance industry proposed a series of measures designed to encourage individuals to save, through a co-ordinated publicity campaign and higher ISA (tax -free individual savings account) limits. It also called for greater financial stability for workers, through tax breaks for rehabilitation services to cope with increased sickness in the workplace.
Source: Safeguarding the Future: Protecting consumers and promoting UK business, Association of British Insurers (020 7600 3333)
Links: Report | ABI press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A report presented findings from research with people with defined-contribution pensions at or around the point they were making decisions about retirement and annuitizing their pension fund. It covered their understanding and perceptions of the annuitization process, focusing on the information they received and used.
Source: Sarah Horack, Margaret Watmough, Andrew Wood and Kate Downer, Information Needs at Retirement: Qualitative research focusing on annuitisation decisions, Research Report 515, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-Jul
A report said that businesses should work harder to rebut unfair negative views about defined-contribution pension schemes. Those which engaged and supported staff, and gave clear signals about pensions, benefited from increased take-up and higher satisfaction levels.
Source: Saving for Tomorrow: The role of defined contribution schemes, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247) and Mercer Consulting
Links: CBI press release
Date: 2008-Jul
The government said that it would amend the Pensions Bill to make it unlawful to encourage or force workers not to save in a workplace pension.
Source: Press release 24 June 2008, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: DWP press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Jun
An article examined individual saving behaviour in Italy and in the United Kingdom, and the factors determining saving for retirement. It questioned whether differences in pension policies and attitudes were accentuated or lessened by common demographic and social factors. UK respondents made use of private saving for their retirement significantly more than their Italian counterparts.
Source: Roberta Adami and Orla Gough, 'Pension reforms and saving for retirement: comparing the United Kingdom and Italy', Policy Studies, Volume 29 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Jun
A report evaluated the Pensions Education Fund, set up in 2006 with the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of delivering pensions information by trusted third parties, targeting groups in the workforce that were regarded as most at risk of under-provision for retirement. The findings suggested that the approach of delivering pensions information through third parties via the workplace was a potentially viable approach.
Source: Lorna Adams, Karen Bunt, Katie Carter and Arwenna Davies, Evaluation of the Pensions Education Fund, Research Report 507, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-Jun
The government began consultation on the ways in which employers could continue to maintain good occupational pension provision through greater risk-sharing.
Source: Risk Sharing Consultation, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: Consultation document | DWP press release | NAPF press release | ACA press release | Liberal Democrats press release
>Date: 2008-Jun
The government announced that pension rules would be changed to allow protected rights (intended to replace state benefits forgone by people who contracted out of the state second pension) to be held in self-invested personal pensions (Sipps). The rules were considered to be no longer necessary following changes which brought all personal pensions – including Sipps – under the regulation of the Financial Services Authority from April 2007.
Source: Pensions: Contracting Out – Self Invested Personal Pensions and Other Changes – Government response to the consultation on the Personal Pension Schemes (Appropriate Schemes) (Protected Rights) (Amendment) Regulations 2008, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: Report | DWP press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jun
Researchers examined the main factors which affected the way in which pension forecasts were received, interpreted, and understood. Most respondents displayed 'weak knowledge and understanding' of how pensions worked, and this limited their ability to understand, interpret, and act on their forecast.
Source: Wendy Sykes, Alan Hedges and John Kelly, Understanding Responses to Pension Forecasts: Qualitative research, Research Report 492, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-May
The government announced (in the draft Queen's Speech) plans to introduce a Saving Gateway Bill, designed to offer a national cash saving scheme for those on lower incomes, providing a financial incentive to save through a matching government contribution for every pound saved.
Source: Preparing Britain for the Future: The government's draft legislative programme, Cm 7372, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Draft Queens Speech | Amendments | HMT press release
Date: 2008-May
A report said that around two-thirds of pensioner households received private pension income in 2005-06: but 40 per cent of pensioner couples, 55 per cent of single men, and 61 per cent of single women pensioners had annual private pension income of less than £1,000.
Source: Pension Trends, Office for National Statistics (web publication only)
Links: Report | ONS press release | FT report | Telegraph report | Liberal Democrats press release
Date: 2008-Apr
The Pensions Bill was given a third reading. The Bill proposed: automatic enrolment into a qualifying workplace scheme from 2012; the introduction of a new personal accounts scheme designed for those employers who did not run a pension scheme; further simplification to the additional state pension by consolidating the rights people had built up under graduated retirement benefit, the state earnings-related pensions scheme (SERPS), and the state second pension into a single cash sum.
Source: Pensions Bill, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 22 April 2008, columns 1190-1284, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | HOC research brief
Date: 2008-Apr
A report by a committee of MPs said that, since its establishment in 2005, the Pensions Regulator had put the regulation of pension schemes on a firmer footing. It took greater account of risk in deciding where best to focus its regulatory work, and had stronger powers to obtain information and intervene to protect members' benefits. There were also signs of improvement in the adequacy of the funding of final-salary pension schemes. But the regulator had made a slower start in the regulation of money purchase schemes, and much remained to be done in improving standards of scheme governance and communications with members.
Source: The Pensions Regulator: Progress in establishing its new regulatory arrangements, Fifteenth Report (Session 2007-08), HC 122, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Liberal Democrats press release
Date: 2008-Apr
An article examined the distribution of occupational pension provision. Although class and gender were important predictors of who received occupational pensions, access for the disadvantaged arose mainly as an accident of an employment decision made for reasons unrelated to savings or pensions criteria.
Source: Traute Meyer and Paul Bridgen, 'Class, gender and chance: the social division of welfare and occupational pensions in the United Kingdom', Ageing and Society, Volume 28 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
A report said that charging structures appeared to be a relatively small barrier to acceptance of the proposed new personal pension accounts: but if the structure were not simple, transparent, and explained clearly it could cause trust to be lost in the scheme and prompt opt-outs at the first hurdle.
Source: Becky Rowe, Josh Hunt and Jo Phillips, Personal Accounts: Attitudes and reactions to possible charging structures, Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (020 7412 1552)
Links: Report | PADA press release
Date: 2008-Mar
A think-tank report said that the government needed to make additional reforms to every part of the pensions system. It should make it easier for employers to provide good pensions, confront the risks in personal accounts, and introduce a new single-tier state pension.
Source: Nicholas Hillman, Quelling the Pensions Storm: Lessons from the past, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650)
Links: Report | Telegraph report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Mar
The government announced (in the Budget) that the 'Saving Gateway' scheme (designed to provide people on low incomes with a cash incentive to save) would be introduced nationally, with the first accounts available to savers in 2010. It began consultation on the operation of the scheme.
Source: Budget 2008: Stability and opportunity – building a strong, sustainable future, HC 388, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522) | The Saving Gateway: Operating a national scheme, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) and HM Revenue and Customs
Links: Budget Report | Consultation document | Hansard | HMT press release | CIH press release | PFRC press release
Date: 2008-Mar
An article examined the effect on remuneration of defined-benefit pension accrual, and the factors that had resulted in changes to the cost and value of this accrual. Costs of employment had risen significantly more for members of defined-benefit pension schemes compared with other employees, largely as a result of falling long-term interest rates and their effect on the cost of defined-benefit pension accrual. The increase in the value of remuneration to employees had shown a similar pattern.
Source: Paul Sweeting, 'The cost and value of UK defined benefit pension provision', Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 7 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Mar
The pensions industry regulator published a draft statement (for consultation) on the regulation of defined-benefit pension schemes that set out a new approach to looking at mortality assumptions. In recovery plans submitted to the regulator, mortality assumptions that appeared to be weaker than the long cohort assumption would attract further scrutiny; assumptions which assumed that the rate of improvement tended towards zero, and did not have some form of 'underpin', would also attract further scrutiny.
Source: Good Practice When Choosing Assumptions for Defined Benefit Pension Schemes with a Special Focus on Mortality, Pensions Regulator (01273 811800)
Links: Consultation document | Pensions Regulator press release | Watson Wyatt press release | Telegraph report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Feb
Consultation began on changes to the assumptions in respect of pension scheme valuations used when considering compensation payments from the Pension Protection Fund. The proposed changes reflected the evidence of bigger-than-expected improvements in life expectancy. (The Pension Protection Fund was set up to pay compensation to members of eligible pension schemes where the employer had become insolvent, and where there were insufficient assets in the pension scheme to cover Pension Protection Fund levels of compensation.)
Source: Consultation on Assumptions to be Used for Valuations under Section 143 and Section 179 of the Pensions Act 2004, Pension Protection Fund (020 8867 3297)
Links: Consultation document | PPF press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Feb
The Pensions Bill was given a second reading. The Bill proposed: automatic enrolment into a qualifying workplace scheme from 2012; the introduction of a new personal accounts scheme designed for those employers who did not run a pension scheme; further simplification to the additional state pension by consolidating the rights people had built up under graduated retirement benefit, the state earnings-related pensions scheme (SERPS), and the state second pension into a single cash sum.
Source: Pensions Bill, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 7 January 2008, columns 54-126, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | DWP press release | HOC research brief | FT report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jan
A survey found that that 13 million adults had no financial savings or investments. More than a third of people would 'rather enjoy a good standard of living today than save for retirement'.
Source: Wealth and Assets Survey: Experimental Statistics 2006/07, Office for National Statistics (web publication only)
Links: Report | ONS press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Jan
A survey on pension trends found that 4 out of 5 defined-benefit pension schemes run by companies were closed to new entrants (up from 7 out of 10 three years previously). Only around 900,000 private sector employees were left in defined-benefit schemes open to new employees, compared to over 5 million public sector employees.
Source: 2007 Review and Pension Trends Survey Report, Association of Consulting Actuaries (020 7382 4594)
Links: Report | ACA press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Jan
A think-tank report examined the long-term goals for the pensions system, and the options for monitoring key trends and reviewing policy in the future.
Source: Penny Beynon, Maintaining Consensus: Long-term goals for the UK pensions system and options for ongoing policy review, Pensions Policy Institute (020 7848 3744)
Links: Report | PPI press release
Date: 2008-Jan