Supermarket chain Morrisons has closed its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme to future accrual, affecting around 10,000 existing staff.
Employees in the pension plan will be switched to a scheme based on career average earnings, rather than final salary, in August. The DB scheme was closed to new recruits in 2003.
It follows two high-profile closures this week alone, with BP closing its DB scheme to new members and Barclays scrapping its scheme for existing members.
Speaking yesterday at the Actuarial Profession’s Annual conference in Leeds, Joanne Segars, National Association of Pension Funds’ (NAPF) chief executive, said: “A number of employers have recently announced their decision to close their final salary schemes either to new or existing members. This continues a trend seen over the last five years and more.
“Such changes do not mean that employers are less committed to providing a good workplace pension. Indeed, some of the employers in the news have replaced their final salary scheme with very generous alternative arrangements. Workplace pensions cover nearly half the UK workforce and they remain a very effective and good value way to save for retirement."