Employer pension scheme membership in decline
The percentage of UK employees who are part of an employer pension scheme has fallen from 55% to 50% between 1997 and 2009. It was also revealed, by the Office for National Statistics, that the percentage of self-employed men paying into a pension fund arrangement has also fallen from 64% to 45% over the same period. This is a worrying decline in pension scheme membership and pension fund arrangements which the UK government needs to address immediately.
As pressure on the state pension scheme continues to grow, as does pressure on public-sector pension arrangements, there are fears that the UK government will struggle to fulfill all pension obligations in the future. There's also the fact that the cost of living in the UK continues to rise and more and more people are now being pushed into poverty in their later years.
While many people will trace back the problems in the UK pensions industry to the time when Gordon Brown introduced more tax on pension fund assets and pension fund income, in truth there needs to be a shake-up of the whole UK pension fund industry. We also need to see more awareness schemes regarding pension fund arrangements because many people do not appreciate the difficult times which lay ahead.
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