News of UK companies preparing to cut back their future pensions obligations , published by the National Association of Pension Funds, may indeed sound the death knell of final salary pension schemes, as has been suggested by the likes of Ros Altman, a former adviser to the UK Government. But the realism revealed by the NAPF's survey is welcome.

The core of the NAPF's report was that a quarter of the 100 companies it surveyed said they would "close their pension schemes to existing members". In other words, people who are already members of defined benefit pension schemes will get what they are due, relating to the period they have already worked; but for the rest of their careers they will have to settle for a less beneficial, defined contribution pension.