This page has been instigated by a series of media stories speculating on IBM's pension intentions.

AMIPP has said "Although IBM has the power to wind-up (and the Trustee has that power also), the scheme will not be wound up while IBM stays solvent and financially astute."

There appears to be one original media article and various rehashings of it. The article claims to have found some foundation for its content on the AMIPP website. There is no such foundation; AMIPP has not suggested it knows of IBM's plans and neither has the chairman, Brian Marks (in any capacity).

Various aspects are covered in more detail within messages on the message board. AMIPP's discounting of windup is not based on an assessment of goodwill from Sam Palmisano and his executives, it is based on the UK regulations and the insurance market.

It is of course possible that IBM is planning changes and it is highly likely that IBM, like every other pension sponsor with a final salary scheme, has given some consideration to potential changes.  However, AMIPP knows of no public facts about IBM's intentions beyond the weak and indistinct position recounted in the 2003 Members' Report.

It is reasonable for scheme members to be concerned, in the light of hardships which some members of other UK schemes have suffered recently.  Concern will have been heightened by the facts that our scheme has the worst record on pensions in payment and even after that cheapening it still has a "large" deficit.

Poor communications with the members will also have heightened concerns. For example, the 2003 Members' Report notes the company's power to windup the scheme, although this power has always existed and was not mentioned in previous Members' Reports.  This has been seen by some as a "softening up", preparing a climate for future bad news.

On a practical note, if members are asking questions on this topic they should note that there is little point in using the contacts on the official pensions website. Those contacts reach Pensions Administration and that department operates under instructions from the trustee-directors.  (Many trusts outsource their pension administration).  If you want to query the decision makers you need to address IBM (via your manager or Human Resources or IBM UK or IBM Corporation) or the trustees (by addressing your missive explicitly to trustee-directors or their chairman).   If your query is about IBM's intentions rather than the trust's knowledge, agreement or preparedness for them then it is obviously best addressed to IBM.