News

UK - The Treasury confirmed the annual allowance will be cut from £255,000 to £50,000 and the lifetime allowance reduced from £1.8m to £1.5m.

HUNGARY - Hungarian pension-fund companies will protest against the government's plan to suspend contributions to workers' retirement accounts for a year, an industry association said.

IRELAND - Almost 80% of Ireland's defined benefit schemes have already closed or are likely to close to new employees, research shows.

The coalition was right to heed warning about the potential impact of an annual allowance as low as £30,000, trade bodies say.

The Treasury has confirmed it will protect long-serving final salary scheme members after it increased the factor used for valuing benefits against the annual allowance from 10 to 16.

The annual allowance will be cut from £255,000 to £50,000; the lifetime allowance reduced from £1.8m to £1.5m, and the factor for valuing final salary benefits increased from 10 to 16, the Treasury has announced.

Asda is to close its defined benefit scheme to future accrual to address its £400m deficit.

The £3bn DHL Pensions Investment Fund has restructured part of its investment portfolio with J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services.

The National Association of Pension Funds has closed its final salary scheme to new members after liabilities soared by nearly 50% during 2009, PP has learned.

Schemes that have already mitigated risk are likely to be hit hard by the Pension Protection Fund's new levy calculation, Aon Hewitt warns.