Two surveys this week really caught my eye. KPMG’s annual pensions monitor confirmed that for the first time the cash spend for business on final salary pension schemes was going to be higher for deferred members than existing staff with the ratio moving from 2:1 in previous years to 1:1 this year. It suggested that within 5 years the ratio will move to 1:4!! That means that £4 out of every £5 of a company’s expenditure is focussed on staff who no longer work for or contribute to the success of an organisation. That really can’t make any sort of financial sense for business and can only encourage more and more DB scheme closures.
The other survey from Watson Wyatt backed up this view with research that around half of DB schemes still open to active members think they will close to future accrual within 3 years which would mean of the 250 companies surveyed the 16% currently still open for existing staff would fall to 2% within 3 years. You don’t need to be an actuary to work out that’s only 5 schemes out of 250 – imagine the stampede to provide consultancy services for those schemes!! This is all further evidence of the massive transition in pension provision which is underway in the UK which is going to continue to gather pace over the next few years.