There are a number of miscalculations which mean contributions would never have funded these schemes. One is the number of years people live after retirement.

There are a number of miscalculations which mean contributions would never have funded these schemes. One is the number of years people live after retirement. Another is that pensions (due to their terms) have outpaced wage growth significantly so current contributors can't fund them. Finally, a pension relative to final salary is difficult to fund from a percentage of mostly from early-mid career wages. In the UK, many public sector organizations have been privatized. Early privatizations often took the pension liabilities with them. As the employees who were members of such schemes leave the scene and current organizations must choose between meeting obligations and making a profit, I expect to see the companies look to duck out of obligations perhaps by packaging obligations into a spinoff company and then watching it go bankrupt. A lot of retirees I know are pulling money out of these schemes using the new option to take the money as cash. They then put the money into buy to let as a kind of annuity on the basis that even if they'd get more money from the scheme in the long run, they aren't a position to take that kind of a risk. Hope they have insurance.