More firms end final-salary plans

One in four of Britain's biggest companies no longer offer any of their staff access to a defined benefit pension, a report shows.

About 25 per cent of FTSE 100 companies now offer only a defined contribution scheme, having closed defined benefit schemes to both new and existing members, according to the Towers Watson consultancy.

The figure is considerably higher than the 15 per cent of blue-chip companies that had completely closed their defined benefit pension when the same survey was carried out last year.

The study also found that 90 per cent of companies offered a defined contribution pension to new staff, with just 1 per cent still offering a final salary scheme, and the rest offering different types of defined benefit scheme, such as a career average.