United Kingdom

UK - New contracting-out rebates proposed by the government for employers sponsoring DB pension schemes would fall almost £1bn a year short of what the Government Actuary has recommended, Mercer HR Consulting has argued.

UK - Large multi-national pension schemes are frantically putting measures in place to avoid being burdened with a requirement for full funding under new cross-border regulations, according to Peter Blake, principal at Mercer Human Resource Consulting....

UK - About 15,000 part-time "retained" firefighters will now have access to the Firefighters Pension Scheme following a landmark discrimination ruling by the House of Lords.

UK - HBOS has said it will pay £800m into its defined benefit pension schemes before the end of 2006.

UK - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has extended the deadline for submitting information about section 179 valuations, allowing trustees who miss the one year deadline to submit by March 31, 2006.

UK - The £1.3bn Shipbuilding Industries Pension Scheme (SIPS) has dropped Aon Consulting and appointed Hymans Robertson to provide actuarial strategic investment and related consultancy services.

UK - Taxpayers will have to foot a £6bn bill over the next 15 years if the "85 year rule" regarding pensionable income is not abolished, the Local Government Authority (LGA) has claimed.

UK - The annual income that a person receives in retirement has been cut by nearly 80% over the last 10 years, new research has revealed.

UK - Hewitt Associates has launched a dedicated defined contribution (DC) team, made up of existing members of staff, to deal with what it believes is a maturing sector of the market.

UK - Sainsbury's has made a raft of changes in a bid to plug rising deficits in its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme, including a £350m cash injection and a doubling of its annual deficit payments.