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Tata plan is inventive way to avoid BHS-style pensions disaster

Comment: Cutting pensions before a company goes bust has risks – but is better than firefighting afterwards

The contrasting fates of pensioners at the collapsed retailer BHS and the loss-making industrial group Tata Steel UK show how important it is to get ahead of the UK pensions crisis – rather than just firefighting pension fund disputes when companies go bust.

On May 26, the UK government put forward a plan to let Tata reduce the pensions due to steelworkers at its UK operations, enabling the company to find a willing buyer more easily, and hopefully preserve jobs.

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