一本教会你“做对”题的6级阅读书 day20 passage3
Passage 3 Government Pensions Policy “Is Failing”
养老政策改变,退休令人心忧 《卫报》
Nine out of 10 final salary pension schemes are closed to new members,
and one in five will not accept any more contributions,
according to a report which has found
that the vast majority of employers
believe government policy on pensions is failing.
The Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) found
that only 6% of employers believed the government's policy of
supporting quality workplace pension schemes was working,
down from 32% in 2008.
The survey found they were particularly concerned about the cost of
automatically enrolling staff into company pension schemes from 2012.
Firms that wish to be exempted from offering personal accounts
[01:00]will have to auto-enrol all employees aged over 22
[01:05]and under state pension age into a pension scheme
[01:09]that meets minimum contribution or benefit standards.
[01:15]The forthcoming changes have resulted in 59% of employers
[01:21]saying they intended to review their existing pension scheme arrangements,
[01:26]with 25% considering benefit reductions to offset the cost of
[01:32]increased membership and 15% thinking of closing their schemes altogether.
[01:40]Only 32% of employers said they had budgeted for the costs of auto-enrollment.
[01:49]The ACA said that with taxes on business
[01:53]and individuals likely to rise over the next few years,
[01:58]it was difficult to see anything other than a worsening climate
[02:03]for pensions savings unless there was a radical change of approach.
[02:09]It added this was a "real crisis which the next government needs to tackle
[02:15]as one of its top priorities after the general election".
[02:21]The demise of final salary or defined benefit schemes
[02:25]will have a grim effect on future pensioners' finances.
[02:31]According to the ACA, employers funding defined benefit schemes contribute
[02:38]an average of 23.2% of earnings, more than three times
[02:44]that contributed to defined contribution or money purchase schemes.
[02:50]Although the organisation said payments into defined contribution
[02:55]were increasing slowly, more than half of those involved in
[02:59]the survey received employer contributions worth less than 6% of earnings.
[03:07]These small contributions mean the eventual pension incomes for
[03:12]an increasing number of private sector employees
[03:16]will be significantly worse than those paid out now.
[03:21]The ACA's chairman, Keith Barton, said:
[03:26]"These are worrying times for all those looking to retire in the years ahead.
[03:33]Whilst the government's personal accounts initiative eventually
[03:37]may bring on board more pension savers, it has to be remembered
[03:43]that these accounts are designed to 'fill the gap' with a low level pension."
[03:50]Barton said there was a "huge public policy gap" in meaningful action
[03:56]to protect good existing private sector schemes and promote new pensions
[04:03]that aim to check uncertain and volatile pension outcomes.
[04:09]The survey found that 76% of employers thought public policy
[04:15]should be more supportive of "middle way" designs
[04:20]which combine the best aspects of defined benefit
[04:23]and defined contribution schemes.
[04:26]Although such schemes already exist they fall under the regulatory regimes
[04:33]for both defined benefit and contribution schemes,
[04:37]making them expensive and cumbersome to run.