James Moore: Alliance puts a crafty boot into its pension-holders
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Outlook Alliance Boots has been taking flak for allegedly putting the future returns of its 20,000 pensioners at risk by offering to change the way plans are paid.
Pensioners can choose to give up future inflation-linked increases on pensions earned before 1997 in exchange for a one-off boost today. No less than John Ralfe, the pension expert who is a former head of corporate finance at Boots, has said that the proposal looks rather better, in the long run, for the company than for its pensioners.
Now Boots has said that the figures it gave illustrating the impact of the offer were wrong. Ooops. But it doesn't change the fact that companies rarely make such offers out of the goodness of their hearts and that those who take the cash now will, with longevity rising inexorably, probably pay for it later.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments