Still Got a Pension? It's good news...

Following research by Prudential we are told that more than 2 million people now have to postpone their retirement because of the fall in value of their pension funds. That is, people in the private sector who do not have the benefit of public sector final salary pension scheme (no further comment needed here except perhaps for a sigh).

That having been said many annuity rates have actually achieved more than anticipated in view of the current economy and some pensions are allowing workers to make changes in the pension arrangements so that they still provide very good value.

Many workers had anticipated being able to fund part of their retirement from the interest earned on deposit accounts but, with rates still dropping (now 0.5%), it does not look as it this will be feasible for a little while yet.

If we journey back in time to the last recession there were a couple of pension/insurance companies that went spectacularly to the wall losing millions and leaving many people with no pension at all. Hopefully this indicates that, in reality, many people are better off today in that they still have a pension rather than having nothing at all.