OT: New Employer's Pension Scheme

[Tim Watts]

Pension holidays was one of the things that I thought WTF? Whoever came up with that c*ck should be put in prison.

[Andrew Gabriel]

They almost all have, in the sense that their future liabilities exceed their predicted funds at that time by some considerable amount. A tiny amount of my pension is part of a final salary scheme from the first job I had after university, and it's unlikely I'll get all of it when I retire - that's typical of all such schemes.

[bert]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

What changed was that first membership of your company pension scheme ceased to be mandatory. Then the last Labour gov introduced restrictions on how much a company could pay in based on the usual leftie phobias about tax payment. This was at a time when the stock market was at a high. When the dotcom bubble burst suddenly the funds were grossly underfunded. Labour stripped off the roof when the sun was shining.

[bert]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

It was a significant reason making a substantial contribution to their problems.

[bert]

In message , george writes

Once the investment base has been destroyed it can't then recover to the same level even though the FTSE has risen.

[bert]

In message , george writes

These "holidays" were imposed by GB

[bert]

+1

[bert]

GB

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Them why hasn't the present government reversed it?

I'll give you a clue. Pensions are now something for big business to make money out of. Just how well they work for the pensioner is irrelevant. The so called choice so beloved by tories is now between poor and poorer.

[mcp]

My employer took one on the early 1990s. They were very common then, long before Labour came to power.

[george]

It is instructive to read this article:

It explains the introduction of the 1986 Finance Act. This is obviously way before Gordon Brown.

[Capitol]

Pension holidays were a Thatcher era idea, dreamed up by the treasury to increase company taxation receipts. As no politician has any common sense, the idea took hold and was implemented. Many large companies(BA, BT,Tesco) still have massive pension fund deficits, but no political party has been brave enough to tell companies that they cannot pay dividends if the pension fund has a deficit. You vote for these idiots, it's your fault.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The company I worked for took a pension holiday in the late 80s because its scheme was awash with money. Far more than it needed for the foreseen commitments. At that time.

[bert]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

It's the pension funds which bought up most of the QE bonds which have kept this country afloat.

[jgh]

Yes, but pension funds are by their very nature long-long-term things, they (should) spread their investment risk over the next 100 years.

jgh

[Tony Bryer]

Likewise there was a period when pension funds were taking (ISTR they may have been required to) contribution holidays since they were overfunded, the shareholders getting the benefit. It would seem only fair that in the reverse situation the shortfall is made up.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've still not had a satisfactory explanation as to why it was once possible to provide decent company pension schemes funded by a mixture of employer and employee contributions, but isn't now and not in the future.

The only one seems to be that 'others' wanted to get their grubby paws on these once vast sums.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I suggest you google 'pyramid schemes'

[george]

Why?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd suggest you do some maths.