This article uses the litigation in National Grid v. Laws to demonstrate two aspects of the law surrounding occupational pension schemes: the wide range of interpretations that are possible when construing pension scheme rules; and the enormous difficulties faced by scheme members when seeking...

The article compares the major features of pension provision in the UK and in France. It considers why the UK population appears to be at best indifferent to their system of provision, when overall it is financially secure, whereas the French system, which is faced with increasing costs,...

This article considers the issues raised by the proposed abolition of the mandatory retirement age as a result of the Equal Treatment Directive, 2000/78/EC, and of proposed Age Discrimination in Employment Regulations. It argues that there are a number of distinctive retirement ages, namely, the...

An integral part of government policy is to encourage employees to make financial provision for retirement. This paper asks why eligible employees, particularly women, do not join their company schemes. This two‐stage study uses face to face interviews followed by a survey of 532 employees who...

Assesses the occupational pension scheme, as it has evolved in the UK, from the perspective of the providing employer. Analyses a variety of objectives that employers may have when sponsoring an occupational scheme and details the results of a survey of 66 private sector organizations which...

A postal survey of companies registered in Scotland considered various occupational pension issues. A major finding was the strong managerial belief (but absence of hard evidence) that pension schemes had positive recruitment and motivational effects. Ad hoc ‐ery ‐ in the sense of expediency...