COMPANIES are collectively saving £4.15bn a year as a result of closing their final salary pension schemes, an asset manager has claimed.
Brewin Dolphin's Wealth Management division estimates there are two million fewer people who are members of final salary schemes than there were 10 years ago.
It said amounts firms paid into defined contribution schemes, which in many cases have replaced final salary ones, had also more than halved.
They had fallen from an average of around 15% or 16% of a member's pay for a final salary scheme to just 7% or 8%.
Martin Smith, chief executive of Brewin Dolphin's Wealth Management division, said: "As companies face up to huge deficits in their defined benefit pension schemes, a growing number are taking the decision to close them to new members of staff and in some cases to existing employees."
Nearly 60% of final salary schemes were now closed to new members. In 20 to 30 years' time very few people would retire on pensions based on final salaries, the firm warned.
