From The BBC:
About half the final-salary pension schemes in the private sector will have closed to existing employees within the next three years, a survey suggests.Actuarial firm Watson Wyatt surveyed more than 250 employers, many of them large, in July about their intentions. While about 75% of all final-salary schemes are shut to new recruits, only about 9% are closed to current staff. But this year has seen a flurry of employers closing their pension schemes to all further contributions. Watson Wyatt said that if its prediction of many more closures was borne out, about one million people currently paying into a final-salary scheme would be forced to join an alternative pension plan by 2012. “When employers are cutting jobs and freezing pay, pension arrangements will inevitably be put under the microscope,” said Rash Bhabra of Watson Wyatt. “At the same time, companies are confronting much bigger deficits. “These trends also get their own sense of momentum as companies benchmark themselves agai…
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