Bosses accused of 'hypocrisy' over pensions

Research conducted by the Trades Union Congress suggests that more than half of company directors who have closed their final salary pension schemes to new members of staff are still allowing new directors to join the schemes.

The PensionsWatch survey also revealed that while 47% of firms have closed their schemes, 70.5% of directors at 121 of the UK’s largest companies have kept hold of their own generous final salary pensions.

Brendan Barber of the TUC said that ‘boardroom hypocrisy’ was allowing bosses to ‘feather their own pensions nests’ at the expense of their staff.

Meanwhile, research by the Future Foundation has revealed that the number of people working beyond normal retirement age is set to rise significantly in the coming years.

52% of employees over 65 said that they were still working because of a pension shortfall.

The report estimates that by 2020 the number of workers over the age of 50 will be in the region of 10 million, compared with 6.9 million in 2002.