The government's plans for new pensions laws designed to protect workers' retirement funds have met with mixed reactions from unions and analysts.
Under the new legislation, companies will be required to pay into a Pension Protection Fund, with those judged by an independent board to have the shakiest pension schemes likely to pay more, revealed a report.
The government also announced plans to make it easier for workers to retire later in life if they wished.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Collective insurance is the sensible way to protect pensions. However, those workers who have already lost out should not be forgotten."
Paul Greenwood, actuary at the pension research unit of Mercer Human Resources Consulting, said: "This has done nothing to smooth the burden of costs on employers."
According to the report, the protection fund, which will initially be financed by a flat-rate levy on companies after it is set up in 2005, will a year later be also financed by a risk-adjusted fee, said a spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions.
Plans to set up a pension protection fund were first floated last June and have disturbed company bosses who fear more financial burdens, concluded the report.
