Pension experts last month said that final-salary pension schemes were “finished” after three big firms moved to reduce members’ benefits.
BP said that it would close its final-salary scheme for anyone joining after April 2010. A day later, Barclays said existing members would stop accruing benefits in its scheme, a move expected to hit 18,000 employees. Then Morrisons, the supermarket group, said it would scrap its final-salary scheme for 4,500 existing members.
Most defined benefit schemes have already closed to new members – five years ago, about 40% of companies still offered final-salary pensions to new joiners, but today you can count them on one hand …or is it one finger? Shell, we salute you. For now anyway.
