Recently the company I work for announced they wish to change the Pension Scheme from DB to DC. We pay 5% into it. I know it's underfunded at the moment (10-20%) in line with most schemes. The reasons given for wishing to switch are cost (but this isn't really being promoted) and "if the company is sold or bought we don't know if the new owners will honour the Scheme". But in reality it's cost I believe.
At this stage my questions are:
1. How do I go about analysing the benefit or not to me if the change goes ahead. I'm 8 years in the scheme.
2. Can a company arbitrarily do this? Contract of employment states I must join the company pension scheme and details will be given on joining. These details then clearly state it's a DB scheme.
3. If they can, can I keep the 8 years to date as DB with future years being DC.
4. If they can change it what process has to be gone through.
5. I have outstanding queries regarding the Adminstration of my contributions, can I insist that all these are resolved before any switch takes place.
5. In general am I right that DB is better for me than DC.
I realise that theres a lot of questions here, but I feel I'm only at the beginning of a saga and so I'm looking for pointers and advice.
Thanks in advance.
At this stage my questions are:
1. How do I go about analysing the benefit or not to me if the change goes ahead. I'm 8 years in the scheme.
2. Can a company arbitrarily do this? Contract of employment states I must join the company pension scheme and details will be given on joining. These details then clearly state it's a DB scheme.
3. If they can, can I keep the 8 years to date as DB with future years being DC.
4. If they can change it what process has to be gone through.
5. I have outstanding queries regarding the Adminstration of my contributions, can I insist that all these are resolved before any switch takes place.
5. In general am I right that DB is better for me than DC.
I realise that theres a lot of questions here, but I feel I'm only at the beginning of a saga and so I'm looking for pointers and advice.
Thanks in advance.