TUC: Avoid slash and burn approach to pensions

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) is urging trustees to fight UK employers’ "slash and burn" approach to pensions.

Leader of the group Brendan Barber recently told attendees of the TUC pension trustee conference that everything must be done to safeguard pensions as the UK remains in the grip of the credit crunch.

He added that the UK was now caught up in the worst recession since the 1930s.

And while he stated that he accepted the current financial climate for employers and fund managers is "extremely difficult", due to low interest rates, increasing life expectancy and poor returns, people still needed to act.

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"There is a nagging suspicion that some firms – including many that took contribution holidays in the 1990s – are using the current recession as a convenient excuse to adopt a slash and burn approach to occupational pensions," Mr Barber warned.

The TUC recently stated that the unemployment situation in the UK is as bad, if not worse, as what was seen during the 1980s.