Industry expert warns of dangers to final salary pension schemes
DB Trustees has released a research note which suggests that final salary pension schemes are in serious trouble in the UK. It is estimated that the U.K.'s 800 final salary pension schemes have lost between them a staggering £226 billion over the last year due in the main to the weakness of the UK stock market and property market. It order to plug the funding gap it is estimated that between them they would have to increase funding by £45 billion a year for the foreseeable future, of which very few are in a position to contemplate their share of additional funding.
It looks as if we are finally seeing the end of the UK final salary pension scheme industry, an industry which has served so many pensioners so very well over the last few decades. Those in employment and members of a final salary pension scheme at the moment most be holding their breath awaiting news of the damage done to their scheme. The government will be under serious pressure over the coming years to plug any shortfall but with additional UK government funding very thin on the ground this would seem a forlorn hope.
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