Two points.
1. If all of these large companies (multinational or not) are making "billions" in profit why are the dividends so pathetic? and therefore the income to pension schemes that invest in such companies. Where is all the money going? I know gearing is quite high these days as debt is "cheap" due to low interest rates but that can't account for all the money by a long margin.
2. A lot of the problems with the UK pension sector specifically can be traced back to the Thatcher government in the 80's and Browns tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the late 90's.
Thatcher detested the defined benefit pension system because her ilk of "entrepeneurs" were prohibited from it, so the "private" pension industry was born, and we all know how well that turned out with the mis-selling scandal and p*ss poor investment returns from fund managers who got paid huge bonuses anyway (how very Thatcherite...)
Then along came "Broon" who decided to raise £5 billion a year (that the government could then p*iss away) by ending tax relief on pension scheme investment returns. That's at least £100 billion to date (plus lost returns on the shortfall), no wonder schemes are struggling. He'll have a nice MP's pension of course, not affected by investments. The man who stole your old age indeed.
Last edited by Private jet; 14th Sep 2017 at 23:20.