In Reply to: Re: Pensions Bill 'will cost firms £400m a year'' posted by kunikos on 11 June 2004 at 19:56:53:
Correct.
What makes the situation much worst is that the government is introducing legislation that means that companies taking over other companies (or "controlling" them) will have to take complete responsibility for existing pension funds.
This would have been a sensible proposal in normal times - say before the government had trashed occupational pension schemes. But to introduce this now when so many schemes are in trouble REMOVES the opportunity of organisations taking on companies in trouble if that entails open-ended commitments to existing pension schemes. So some companies that may have previously been saved with the pesnion schemes before - won't be now. This will place extra burden on the fund - which currently has a bank balance of zero.
So every pea-brained idea gthat the government introduces to ease a problem seems to me to have the reverse effect. They seem not to be able to listen or think - merely knee-jerk react with new shallow flash ideas.