Workers in private schemes have been warned to expect lower pensions in the wake of the Government-inspired national pensions proposal that goes live in 2012. The Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has found that one in three larger companies will reduce their contributions in response to new rules pushing them to offer pensions for all staff. The level of contributions made by your employer (and yourself) is the key to a decent-size pension.

If you are lucky enough to be in a final salary scheme, your pension will be calculated on contributions based on around 22pc of your salary. For workers in defined contribution (DC) schemes (the pension of choice for companies that no longer offer generous final salary schemes) the average combined employer (8pc) and employee contribution rates (4pc) is around 12pc. Yet this could fall to just 8pc if companies decide to follow rules for the new pension scheme, the National Employment Savings Trust, which only require companies to invest 3pc of a.....Read more on todays story----> Wake up call for pension savers