Passage 3 Government Pensions Policy “Is Failing”
養(yǎng)老政策改變，退休令人心憂 《衛(wèi)報(bào)》
[00:01]Nine out of 10 final salary pension schemes are closed to new members,
[00:07]and one in five will not accept any more contributions,
[00:12]according to a report which has found
[00:15]that the vast majority of employers
[00:18]believe government policy on pensions is failing.
[00:22]The Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) found
[00:28]that only 6% of employers believed the government's policy of
[00:34]supporting quality workplace pension schemes was working,
[00:38]down from 32% in 2008.
[00:43]The survey found they were particularly concerned about the cost of
[00:47]automatically enrolling staff into company pension schemes from 2012.
[00:55]Firms that wish to be exempted from offering personal accounts
[01:00]will have to auto-enrol all employees aged over 22
[01:05]and under state pension age into a pension scheme
[01:09]that meets minimum contribution or benefit standards.
[01:15]The forthcoming changes have resulted in 59% of employers
[01:21]saying they intended to review their existing pension scheme arrangements,
[01:26]with 25% considering benefit reductions to offset the cost of
[01:32]increased membership and 15% thinking of closing their schemes altogether.
[01:40]Only 32% of employers said they had budgeted for the costs of auto-enrollment.
[01:49]The ACA said that with taxes on business
[01:53]and individuals likely to rise over the next few years,
[01:58]it was difficult to see anything other than a worsening climate
[02:03]for pensions savings unless there was a radical change of approach.
[02:09]It added this was a "real crisis which the next government needs to tackle
[02:15]as one of its top priorities after the general election".
[02:21]The demise of final salary or defined benefit schemes
[02:25]will have a grim effect on future pensioners' finances.
[02:31]According to the ACA, employers funding defined benefit schemes contribute
[02:38]an average of 23.2% of earnings, more than three times
[02:44]that contributed to defined contribution or money purchase schemes.
[02:50]Although the organisation said payments into defined contribution
[02:55]were increasing slowly, more than half of those involved in
[02:59]the survey received employer contributions worth less than 6% of earnings.
[03:07]These small contributions mean the eventual pension incomes for
[03:12]an increasing number of private sector employees
[03:16]will be significantly worse than those paid out now.
[03:21]The ACA's chairman, Keith Barton, said:
[03:26]"These are worrying times for all those looking to retire in the years ahead.
[03:33]Whilst the government's personal accounts initiative eventually
[03:37]may bring on board more pension savers, it has to be remembered
[03:43]that these accounts are designed to 'fill the gap' with a low level pension."
[03:50]Barton said there was a "huge public policy gap" in meaningful action
[03:56]to protect good existing private sector schemes and promote new pensions
[04:03]that aim to check uncertain and volatile pension outcomes.
[04:09]The survey found that 76% of employers thought public policy
[04:15]should be more supportive of "middle way" designs
[04:20]which combine the best aspects of defined benefit
[04:23]and defined contribution schemes.
[04:26]Although such schemes already exist they fall under the regulatory regimes
[04:33]for both defined benefit and contribution schemes,
[04:37]making them expensive and cumbersome to run.
