Going with the job
A PENSION of £19 a month is not much to show for a working lifetime, but the reader who wants my advice about it fears that she may lose it. For those who still believe in the pension that goes with the job, hers is a case- study. Twenty years ago she was the secretary in the export department of Simplex and was making additional voluntary contributions into the company pension scheme. Then Tube Investments, which owned Simplex, sold it to the General Electric Company, and GEC, as was its wont, shut the factory and put her out of work. Since then there have been two or three more changes of owner- ship, and now she is alarmed to hear from the scheme's managers that there will be no more contributions from the employer's side. The trustees are considering what to do next. The managers tell her that she need not worry, that the scheme is properly funded and that members are still entitled to the same benefits. So I hope and expect that she will be no worse off than she is already, which is not saying much. Conventional schemes which link pensions to final salaries work by cross-subsidy, with leavers subsidis- ing stayers. In the chilly jargon of the pension business, she is an early leaver.
Previous page
