Join Your Company Pension Scheme Today

I certainly highly recommend joing a company scheme if one is available.

one question if i may. Where are we, the UK, in regards to european legislation particularly in regard to safeguarding of company pension pots following Maxwell's raidinhg of the Mirror Group pot et al. I had a discussion with a colleague recently and he believed that UK have not signed up to legislation that regards your personal 'pot' as part of your pay and therefore protected from management use or from raiding by a new owner post a buyout/takeover etc?

Any thoughts?

Could the other reasons for the decline be.

The average man in the street does not understand all the financial techno language that surrounds the average pension plan.

The average man in the street would not trust a financial advisor as far as they could throw one.

The average man in the street will not trust the volatile nature of shares, and the fact that those in the know use short/insider trading amongst other methods to manipulate the market, whilst the little guys get hung out to rot.

The average man in the street knows goverments have the ability to raid the pension funds as they see fit.

The average man in the street's inability to pull their money out of a pension plan that is faltering.

The average man in the street knows he will not stay with any one employer for more than a few years of his carrier, resulting in a miriad of small frozen company pensions.

The average man in the street knows employers are unwilling to fund a pension that is not their company run pension, compounding the above probem.

The average man in the street knows he faces high fund charges regardless of how well the fund is performing.

The only people to get rich from pensions are the fund managers and the financial institutions, it's certainley not the pensioners and now the credit crunch is really hitting hard, how will pensions perform now?

In reply to Scottishchopper, the UK situation is very different from most of the rest of Europe, apart from the Dutch and to a lesser extent the Germans.

We have always had our pensions in trust funds which have always been completely separate from company accounts. Europe, generally, had book entries in their company accounts, so their pensions were an integral part of company assets.

The Maxwell problem was that he "persuaded" trustees to release assets to the company. These days 40% of Trustees are member-nominated and Unions take close watch on what is happening.

swimmingjohn needs to checkout what he can expect from a state pension plus means tested benefits. If he is happy with the standard of living that implies (ask a few 75 year old state pensioners if you are not sure) that's fine. For the rest of us (who have not worked for the state all our lives and have a taxpayer backed inflation proofed final salary pension) and want a higher standard of living in retirement there is no sensible alternative to starting a pension fund as early as possible. Older workers who fear their fund may be insufficient should know that they can now contribute, and get tax relief on, 100% of earnings. worth considering if you've got substantial savings earning at best 6-7% (taxable). OK so you may never live to collect it all, but when you're food for worms who cares? And most pensions will allow you to take a tax free lump sum as soon as you start to draw the pension. Get real!!

Re: swimmingjohn

Although MrTaurus is right, I thing swimmingjohn was just trying to point out how futile it is to save when those savings can be "confiscated" by the state to pay for what would otherwise be free.

One point to make regarding the tax-free lump sum on retirement. Unless you are of general poor health or have a terminal diagnosis, I would strongly recommend you DO NOT take the lump sum if you can manage without it. I turned down a £70k lump sum, but which would have almost halved my pension entitlement. Most final-salary schemes are index linked and of course that only applies to your pension. Any lump sum is a one-off and when its gone its gone! However the indexation (for me capped at 5%) is applied to my whole entitlement - 5% of the whole pension is a lot better than 5% of half a pension.

If you ask anyone who has taken the lump sum, I can pretty much guarantee they will tell you that they regret it.

As a working person about to be granted his 'pension'.I find it difficult not to be sarcastic to someone who can afford to turn down a one off payment of £70k.
As a working person who has worked all his life (no it,s not a sob story just fact)pensions and annuities were things not fully understood.
What has been understood through experience is that where i have attempted to provide pension cover.
The money i have laid out has at best to my understanding been regarded as being available to the fat cats in the money market for their own use.
If i benefitted from any growth it has been after all and sundry have taken the commissions they worked very hard for.sick.
Fortunately i did see through the cashcow system and made an attempt to provide for myself and future family.
I did not pay fat commissions, but i do have a regular monthly income with capital growth and when i die my family has my asset to use, unlike the annuity system.

And what does one do if their company doesn't offer a pension scheme?