From The BBC:
Mobile phone company Vodafone plans to close its final salary pension scheme to 4,000 current members.It is one of the biggest employers to have taken take this step recently, which it says is necessary to rein in the rising cost of the scheme. Staff have been sent letters about the plan as part of the legally required consultation process. The final salary scheme was closed to new joiners in 2005, with 6,000 staff now in a defined contribution scheme. “Defined benefit [final salary] schemes have become significantly more expensive to operate with their costs likely to rise in the future,” said a spokesman. “This change will make our pension provision sustainable in the long term, and affordable for employees and the company.” Wider trendThe employees in Vodafone’s final salary plan will join the defined contribution (DC) scheme instead, which the company says will be “substantially improved.” The company is proposing to raise the level of its contributions to the DC scheme from one-an…
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