Minister praises trio of big businesses for their staff pensions
20/10/2011
Pensions Minister Steve Webb congratulated three major UK employers for their staff pension, and for achieving a top mark of pensions excellence.
The Pension Quality Mark (PQM) PLUS was given to the international oil and gas company TOTAL E&P UK Limited, homebuilder Taylor Wimpey and to global aerospace, defence and security leader Finmeccanica at the National Association of Pension Funds’ (NAPF) Annual Conference in Manchester, before an audience of over a thousand of pensions professionals.
The PQM PLUS standard is given to those employers who provide an outstanding defined contribution (DC) pension to staff, with employer contributions of at least 10 per cent.
Steve Webb, Pensions Minister, said:
“It is really good to see schemes like these setting the example and offering a good quality standard of pension for their employees, especially in these quite difficult times.
“I hope that come automatic enrolment we will see even more companies awarded the Pension Quality Mark, as we get millions more saving into workplace pensions.”
Joanne Segars, Chief Executive of the NAPF, said:
“We are living at a time of deep economic uncertainty and many businesses are under great financial pressure. But these schemes receiving the PQM show that employers understand the importance of providing good quality pensions to their staff.
“We are delighted that the Pension Minister has presented TOTAL E&P UK Limited, Taylor Wimpey and Finmeccanica with our top mark of excellence.
“We encourage more employers to offer pensions like these, with this level of contribution, to help people build a decent income for retirement.
“From next year new reforms will see people automatically enrolled into a pension. These changes are set to make 5-9 million people save into a pension for the first time. But they are just a first step to get our country saving more.
“The Pension Quality Mark is our way of encouraging employers to go beyond the statutory minimum of 3% required by auto-enrolment. We hope that it will continue to help drive standards of pensions provision higher. With household names like these coming on board, we have every confidence it will.”
The Pension Quality Mark (PQM) was launched by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) in September 2009. Over 125 schemes now qualify and 250,000 scheme members are now covered by schemes that carry the Mark. There are two standards, PQM and PQM PLUS.
PQM PLUS is the superior standard, which recognises DC schemes whose total contributions are of at least 15 per cent, with a minimum employer contribution of 10 per cent.
