IBM is back in hot water over pensions. Investments and Pensions Europe revealed that IBM is "considering options - including wind-up of the C-plan section of its pension scheme.

The C-plan section, which closed to new joiners in 1997, is a contributory scheme which pays out on a defined benefit / final salary basis.

Comments on an IBM staff pension website pointed to "reasonably well-sourced" hints that IBM UK is looking at the future of the C-plan scheme. Scheme trustee Brian Marks, speaking personally, said these options included wind-up of the scheme. Another possibility was to force IBM employees to change their C-plan benefits into a deferred pension.

David Newman, UK pensions manager for IBM, was less impressed with the story. He told Investment and Pensions Europe: "I'm not interested in talking to you, I'm afraid." He did not reply to emails.

More on this story here.

IBM has had problems with its pension scheme both here and in the US. Most recently, a US court told the company to reimburse 140,000 employees and ex-employees whose benefits had been underpaid. ®

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