Pay Holidays for pension schemes never made sense to me.
It would appear to me....being just a simple ol' helicopter pilot (operative word being simple)....payments into the pension fund should come just like the light bill in good times and bad.
Relying upon a business to make up deficits during "bad times" just doesn't make sense.
Just as is currently happening in the USA....most ordinary investors are down eight percent or so on their investment funds while costs and inflation are going up. Business entities are confronted with rising costs for operations and by current law would now have to increase their contributions to a pension scheme at exactly the worse time.
Sounds like bad business to me!
But then again "business" would like to get out of the pension business altogether.....thus the attraction of self funded pensions with perhaps a bit of company match and a five year vestment requirement.