New legislation affecting retired pensioners

[dewdrop]

Media reports say that the proposed new legislation will alter in a major waythe existing priority which retired pensioners enjoy when a pension scheme becomes insolvent. Will existing pensioners be affected by such legislation or will it apply only to those who retired post legislation.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

We won't know until the legislation is enacted.

it's great that the government is facing up to this very difficult issue.

Retired Waterford Glass employees have full, generous pensions, whereas employees with long service and contributions to their pension schemes lost most of their money.

 

[dewdrop]

Thanks Brendan. What prompted me to ask is i think some types of legislation are not retrospective. However if this were the case it would have little impact.for a considerable time.

 

[roker]

Although Banks have a guarantee scheme, I understand that the company paying my Annuity (or any Assurance company) has no guarantee if they should be insolvent. All my pension payment will be gone at a stroke.

 

[pierboy]

There are two solid layers of protection available to you - firstly there is a statutory is an protection scheme which applies to individuals with insurance policies.

Secondly unlike banks insurers must and do hold secure assets (such as cash and investment grade government bonds) to back their liabilities. Most of the assets which banks own to cover their liabilities (ie their customers with current and deposit accounts) are loans and mortgages - which we now realise are very risky.