The majority of employers will only be communicating A-day pension changes to those members directly affected, such as senior execs.
A joint study by pensions specialist firms Claybrook and Paymaster entitled Being prepared for A-Day highlights that 79% of organisations plan a targeted approach and only 4% will favour a generic communications exercise.
Some 25% also plan to use an annual benefit statement as the way to notify staff about the annual allowance, with the lifetime allowance being communicated on an individual basis.
However, while there is no legal requirement to provide specific information to employees, some organisations may be ignoring affected candidates by only targeting obvious groups. As April 2006 approaches mass media coverage may also be responsible for enquiries from the wider workforce.
The survey also shows that half of employers expect to introduce some form of flexible retirement, particularly in the retail sector where older workers can be a useful business asset. However, 27% have rejected the idea of flexible retirement, which itself is not mandatory.