Reader's Digest goes into administration
It has been revealed that the US parent company of the UK version of the Reader's Digest has placed the operation into administration today. This is a matter which we covered some weeks ago in relation to a £125 million pension fund deficit which the US parent company had been trying to resolve with UK pension trustees and the Pensions Regulator.
While a deal between the US parent company and the UK pension trustees was agreed this was immediately vetoed by the Pensions Regulator. As a consequence the US parent company had no alternative but to place the UK operation into administration with the potential loss of 117 jobs. The magazine itself was founded back in 1938, still has a subscriber base of over 500,000 people and will continue to trade as normal until a buyer is found.
This is yet another reflection of problems in the UK pension industry which have seen a number of conflicts between parent companies and pension trustees. While in this particular instance the parent company of Reader's Digest and the UK pension trustees were able to broker a deal, the Pensions Regulator stepped in and vetoed the agreement. The future of the UK arm of the Reader's Digest operation is now in serious doubt.
Share this..
Related stories
Brits pass on pensions, says PAS
There has been a "definite shift" away from pensions in Britain in recent years, according to the Pensions Advisory Service (PAS). Malcolm McLean, chief executive from the PAS said that many employers were cutting back on pensions, and young people were also failing to put money aside for the future.He warned that this reluctance to save was leading to a "demographic time bomb" which needed to be...
Read MoreAon warning over pensions
The UK's 200 largest privately-sponsored pension plans have large shortfalls, according to Aon Consulting.Some 64 per cent of the schemes are in deficit, the firm revealed, with the Aon200 Index showing that the plans' funding deficit reached £15 billion at the end of October - a fall of £9 billion.The economic downturn and reduction in stock market values were blamed for the lack of contributio...
Read MoreOccupational pension schemes have been a major success
Data released by the Office for National Statistics show that occupational pension schemes have significantly reduced poverty in the UK since the early 1990s. However, there were other interesting statistics issued by the Office today which include the fact that the top 20% of earners in the UK earn four times that of the bottom 20% of earners in the UK. This difference between the rich and the po...
Read MoreHave we seen the end of the final salary pension scheme?
Over the last few weeks there has been significant change in the final salary pension scheme sector with more and more companies looking to close these lucrative schemes and transfer to money purchase schemes. The ongoing difficulties with the UK economy have led to a significant drop in the value of pension scheme investments which has created a growing gap between pension liabilities and pension...
Read MoreHas BT been duped by the UK regulator?
While headlines earlier today suggested that British Telecom had done very well out of recent negotiations with the sector regulator Ofcom, the small print of the announcement appears to suggest that all is not well between BT and Ofcom. Despite the fact that Ofcom has allowed British Telecom to significantly increase the cost of allowing competitors to use the network, the company had attempted t...
Read More