Welfare Reform on the Web (January 2008): Pensions - UK

Breaking the link: a consideration of the pensions buy-out market in the United Kingdom following recent developments in the accounting and regulatory regime for the measurement and reporting of liabilities of defined benefit pension schemes

A. Kirkpatrick

Pensions, vol. 12, 2007, p185-197

Considers how changes to the Financial Reporting Standard 17 (FRS17), the issue of reporting statement ‘Retirement Benefits – Disclosures’ in January 2007 and publication by The Pensions Regulator of guidance on abandonment in May 2007 may affect the pensions buy-out market in the UK. Overall it predicts that greater transparency in information about defined benefit schemes may encourage more buy-outs.

Do women teachers get a fair deal? An assessment of teachers’ pensions

L. Foster

Social Policy and Society, vol. 7, 2008, p. 41-52

There has been considerable debate in recent years about how to improve provision for the poorest pensioners, many of whom are women. However there has been little research into the position of women who have access to occupational pension schemes, and so represent a privileged minority. This study uses data from interviews with 23 retired female teachers to outline the difficulties they have faced in building up occupational pension entitlements equal to those of male teachers. They are more likely than men to have:

• taken career breaks
• worked part-time
• failed to get promotion because of their inability to work outside standard hours because of childcare commitments.