Shell, the last FTSE 100 company to offer new employees a final salary pension, has announced plans to axe the policy.
Instead it will now offer new recruits in the UK a defined contribution pension plan only. Shell’s action reflects recent trends in the UK market that have seen the closure of many final salary pension schemes in favour of defined contribution schemes.
Shell currently makes pension contributions equivalent to 31% cent of UK employees’ pensionable salaries — a level of contribution far in excess of virtually any defined contribution pension fund.
The Shell reforms will not affect existing staff, including the directors, who will continue to clock up benefits linked to final salary. Shell pays staff pensions worldwide of more than $3 billion a year. An increase in life expectancy of its staff and former staff of one year would astonishingly increase its liabilities by $2.1 billion.
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