Catherwood LibraryILR School

For the first time in three decades, the department of Britain's government actuary has reported that the number of public sector employees in the UK benefiting from final salary pension plans has exceeded the number of private sector employees benefiting from such plans. Due in part to expanded employment by the National Health Service and Britain's educational system, and the increased membership in such plans by female public sector employees, the main driving force behind the trend remains the rapidly accelerating termination of pension plans based on final salaries by employers looking to cut costs (see WIT for Nov. 25, 2002, and Sep. 16, 2002). With 300,000 more private than public sector British employees enrolled in final salary pension funds in 2000---a gap that has almost certainly widened greatly in the past three years---the international decline in defined benefit pension plans (see WIT's for Jan. 13, 2003, Dec. 12, Sep. 10, and July 11, 2002) may trigger voter resentment that will undermine the pensions of Britain's public sector workers (see WIT for Sep 10, 2002).