Trinity Mirror closes final salary pension scheme
Trinity Mirror, the UK newspaper conglomerate, has revealed plans to close its final salary pension scheme to existing members. The company took the decision to close the scheme to new members back in 2002 as the funding deficit on the scheme began to grow. However, since 2001 the deficit on the final salary pension scheme has increased from a manageable £37 million to £275 million and the pressure is now on to rein in the funds liabilities and transfer members to defined benefit schemes.
This is just the latest body blow for the UK final salary pension scheme sector which is slowly but surely evaporating in the private sector. However, as we have mentioned before, public sector final salary pension scheme numbers continue to rise as taxpayers are being asked to contribute more and more to these schemes as their liabilities continue to rise. So what next?
Many believe that the final salary pension scheme has all but died in the private sector and nearly every scheme in the future will at some point transfer to a defined benefit scheme system. This will mean that pension payments will depend upon the money which members inject into the scheme (and what their funds can buy in the open market) rather than their final salary. Unfortunately, the ever increasing cost of administering final salary pension schemes and the recent fall in stock markets around the world is having a larger and larger impact on everyday life for many pension scheme members.
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