Employees 'taking on responsibility' for pensions
Employees are increasingly taking on the responsibility of ensuring that they have an effective pension vehicle in place, it has been suggested.
However, Des Hamilton, technical director of The Pensions Advisory Service, claims that the perceived decline in prevalence of occupational pension schemes does not simply mean that employers are less involved in the retirement saving process.
He insists that in many cases around the country, employers are still actively assisting their staff in their efforts to secure their own financial future, but in a different way than has been the case in past.
"[Employers] are still making pension provision but they are doing it through a different vehicle, rather than the traditional occupational scheme," he said.
"The perceived wisdom here from employers is that there is a lot less regulation than there is with occupational schemes, there is a lot less hassle, they don't have to get involved in trusteeship and it puts the pension arrangements at more of an arms length from the business."
Earlier this year, the Office of National Statistics reported that in 2006 there were half a million fewer Britons involved with occupational pension schemes than there were three years earlier.
Related Stories
This news is available in 