Not content with all the changes of "A" day in 2007, in October 2012 the government will be pushing ahead with its proposed changes in the pensions regime, which will impact on the vast majority of people.

The changes are designed to ensure that everyone in the UK has access to, and is part of, some form of pension arrangement. When this government came to power, it started to tax pension plans internally, which reduced their popularity. In addition to this, the changes to the accounting rules for companies meant that occupational final salary pensions had to be shown on the balance sheet as a liability, effectively making them very unpopular with companies, and hence the closure of these excellent schemes by most employers (with the exception of government and public sector employees, as the government does not have to run with the same rules that it makes for the private sector!).

Under the new rules, which we reported to you when they were at the proposal stage, all employers that do not have an appropriate scheme in place will have to contribute to the new "personal account". The employer contribution will be 3% of salary, with the employee paying 4% and the government paying 1%. The maximum contribution each year is likely to be around £3,600. The scheme will have retirement age set at 65, with 25% of the fund then being able to be taken as tax free cash, and the rest for buying an annuity.

All employers should now be looking to put appropriate schemes in place, as this will avoid them having to join the new regime. Of course, there is still a great deal of water to go under the bridge before October 2012, and so we are sure there will be some changes before we get there.