CHANGES TO PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS

[johnston65]

Has anyone heard of changes being made to the contributions being made by employers to pension schemes from 2010 onwards. I was asked today about contributions being increased to fall into line with other european countries, just wondering if any one else had heard about this.

[RobertT]

The government are planning on introducing Personal Accounts from 2012,although there are rumours it could be put back to 2015 because of the recession. They are intended to force all employers to pay towards their employees pensions,as at the moment they don't have to. The contribution ratio is Employer = 4%, Employee = 3%, Government = 1%.
More info here:-
http://www.which.co.uk/advice/personal- ... /index.jsp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The danger is that RM and other businesses will just reduce their contributions down to these levels.

[heapsy]

Could this be partly to blame for the decision by RM to close the final salary pension, in order to soften the blow of increased costs in the future with the introduction of this very scheme?

[RobertT]

Could this be partly to blame for the decision by RM to close the final salary pension, in order to soften the blow of increased costs in the future with the introduction of this very scheme?

I think Personal Accounts are what RM have been waiting for. They don't want to stop paying in to our pensions (which they could do at the moment - not counting the deficit on the benefits we've already built up) for fear of looking bad,but it's in the companies interests to reduce costs and this new scheme,from RM's point of view is ideal.