Do final salary pensions still exist? Yes: millions of people are in one, but only a small share of private-sector schemes still take new members.
Do final salary pensions still exist in the UK?
They do, in two very different forms. The Pensions Regulator's 2025 statistics count 200 public sector defined benefit schemes with 19,784,000 memberships, and 5,060 private sector schemes with 9,174,000 memberships. Most of the private ones, though, are closed. The share "closed to future accrual (excluding those in wind-up)" rose "from 73% in 2024 to 74% in 2025".
Those figures count memberships, so one person with pensions from several jobs appears more than once. Holding statements from several jobs? Telling final salary from career average across a drawer of old paperwork goes quicker with a second pair of eyes, and the form on this page summons one: an FCA-authorised adviser who rings to help you sort them, free.
"Final salary" is one flavour of defined benefit. The Regulator says it is the most common type, with benefits "based on the number of years of pensionable service, the accrual rate and the final salary"; career average is the other main kind. To tell which one you have, use the guide to checking your own workplace pension.
Open, closed or winding up: the four scheme states
The Regulator sorts schemes into four states. An open scheme lets new members join and build benefits. A scheme closed to new members still lets existing members keep building. One closed to future accrual takes no one new, and existing members stop building up further years of service. The fourth state is winding up. Only the first of the four takes new members.
Who can still join one today?
Mainly public sector workers. The Regulator lists the public service schemes as those for civil servants, the judiciary, local government, teachers, health service workers, fire and rescue services, police forces and the armed forces. It notes that "until 2015, pension provision in the public sector was provided on a final salary basis", and that since then "workers in all open public service schemes have accrued benefits on a Career Average (CARE) basis". So a teacher, nurse or police officer joining now gets a defined benefit pension, but usually a career average one rather than a final salary one. The older final salary sections of some public schemes have closed; in the police schemes in England and Wales, for example, the Home Office says the legacy schemes "closed to future accrual on 31 March 2022" and members still serving moved to the 2015 scheme.
In the private sector the door is narrow. The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) reports in its Purple Book 2025 that "the proportion of schemes open to new members is four per cent", which is 177 schemes out of 4,838. Open schemes tend to be bigger: the PPF says "while four per cent of schemes are open, 15 per cent of members are in those schemes".
The Regulator's 2025 tables show where the open private schemes sit. Colleges and education institutions are the exception, with 29% of their schemes open, against 1% for private limited companies. For well-known employers, how the big employers' final salary schemes work covers what each has done.
How many people have a defined benefit pension?
The Regulator's 2025 release says 7,448,000 of the public service memberships are active, meaning people still building a pension, and that of 8,110,000 active DB memberships overall, 92% are in the public service. In private schemes the active number is small: 662,000 in 2025, from 1,980,000 in 2012.
The PPF's figures, which cover only schemes eligible for its compensation, point the same way. Its 2025 dataset holds 8.6 million members, of whom 47 per cent are pensioners, 45 per cent are deferred members and 8 per cent are active. That is about 0.7 million active members, against 3.6 million in the first Purple Book in 2006. The two publications are not directly comparable, so do not add them together.
| Measure | Figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| PPF-eligible schemes open to new members | 4% | PPF Purple Book 2025 (31 March 2025) |
| Private schemes closed to future accrual | 74% | Pensions Regulator, December 2025 |
| Active private DB memberships | 662,000 (1,980,000 in 2012) | Pensions Regulator, December 2025 |
| Active public service DB memberships | 7,448,000 | Pensions Regulator, December 2025 |
Why did final salary pensions stop?
Employers closed schemes gradually. A February 2017 Department for Work and Pensions green paper (Cm 9412) records that only 13% of DB schemes, counting hybrid schemes, were open to new members in 2016, "compared to 43% back in 2006". The same paper gives the background: "there has been significant change since the majority of these schemes were set up: increased life expectancy, increasing economic uncertainty and a more pessimistic outlook for future investment returns from most asset classes."
The paper says those changes have left some businesses finding it hard to honour pension promises made when conditions were different. That was the government's view in February 2017, and an individual employer's reasons for closing its scheme may have been different.
Is closing a scheme the end of the pension?
No. Closed to new members, or even to future accrual, describes who can join and what can still be added. Closed schemes still hold millions of pensions: the Regulator counts 5,413,000 private memberships in schemes closed to future accrual in 2025, down from 5,656,000 in 2024.
Whether your own scheme will keep paying as expected depends on its rules, funding and employer. If yours is a closed scheme, the question of what closure means for your deferred pension can go to the FCA-authorised adviser who calls after the form on this page.
For what protects a pension if the employer fails, see whether final salary pensions are protected, and for a pension left behind with a former employer, deferred final salary pensions.
Questions people ask about pensions disappearing
Is the number of final salary schemes still falling?
Yes, slowly. The Regulator counts 5,060 private DB and hybrid schemes in 2025, against 7,300 in 2012, an average fall of 3% a year, and the number of open schemes fell by 79% over the same period.
Why do people say pensions are going away altogether?
Because defined benefit schemes are closing. The Pensions Commission's 2026 interim report describes this as a decline "set in train decades ago" and notes that "automatic enrolment into workplace pensions has turned declining pension participation into a rise of around 11 million extra savers since 2012". Workplace saving continues, mostly in defined contribution pots.
Why is the typical UK pension so low?
The Pensions Commission's interim report says that, with "fewer retirees set to receive defined benefit pensions" and gaps in existing policy, much work remains to make later-life incomes adequate. For the typical amount paid by schemes, see the average final salary pension.
Can I still get a final salary pension from a private employer?
Only if your employer runs an open scheme, which is rare. Your employer or the scheme administrator can confirm. Moving a pension out of an old scheme is a separate and weighty decision, covered in whether to transfer a final salary pension.
Would I be better off with a final salary pension?
That turns on what matters to you; the side-by-side guide sets out the trade-offs. Values of investments in a defined contribution pot can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than you put in.
Finding out where your own scheme stands
Find out which state your own scheme is in, from your annual statement or its administrator. Old pension, new job, or a letter from a scheme you barely remember? This page's form lets you arrange a free phone talk with an FCA-authorised adviser, and every decision stays with you. For the wider picture, read what a final salary pension is.
Sources: Pensions Regulator, Occupational defined benefit landscape in the UK 2025 (published 16 December 2025) and Annual report on UK defined benefit and hybrid schemes 2022; Pension Protection Fund, The Purple Book 2025; DWP, Security and Sustainability in Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (Cm 9412, February 2017); Pensions Commission, Pensions 2050 interim report; Home Office police pension consultation documents.