All the union bods I have spoken to are against any plans to close the scheme.
NATS as a company have taken payment breaks and reduced contributions, getting the agreement of the fund members (employees), by promising at the time when they needed help, that the fund would not suffer.
How much impact has these reduced/non payments had on the fund??
NATS refuse to employ schemes whereby pension money is paid out of a pot and the employee receives a slightly lower wage...
For example (figures entirely fictional and simplified to explain the point) - if you're wage is £50k a year, you and NATS pay NI contributions on this, and you also pay insurance and pension. NATS pay a percentage towards pension as well.
If the employees pension contribution on this wage was £2k per annum, what NATS can do (other companies worldwide do this) is pay the employee a salary of £48k and put the other £2k straight into the pension fund.
The result is exactly the same resultant salary for the employee, and NATS would save money because their NI contributions would be based on a smaller employee salary.
Overall, this would be a big saving for NATS. When confronted and asked by accountants why NATS did not do this, the reply was that there was no benefit to the company - i.e. NATS sees no benefit in employing smart methods which makes the pension scheme more viable.
More people are retiring, and living longer after retirement - that is the main issue with the pension fund - obviously if we do not increase contributions (employer and/or employee) then faced with more outgoings per year, of course the fund 'pot' will start to dwindle... the fact is, the fund as it stands is doing very well and is very well managed - something needs to be done to counter the fact people live for longer after retirement - closing the fund is not needed if NATS starts paying full contributions...
It may mean that employeee contributions need to increase slightly as well (1 or 2%), but better that than risk losing a good pension.
Any 'bung' would need to be in the region of hundreds of thousands per employee, not tens of thousands, because if we close the scheme, we will lose hundreds of thousands pounds in benefits in a new scheme.
Look at the private sector schemes that have closed and compare the old scheme to the new ones - my other half showed me the figures for her company the other day - the difference is drastic.