UK-based Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has warned that low pension contributions into defined contribution schemes will translate into misery for pensioners in the years ahead.

In its third major survey of pension trends in smaller firms, ACA said that money purchase, or defined contribution schemes (DC), have attracted up to 7% less contribution from both sponsoring companies and employees, compared with defined benefit (DB) schemes. ACA said that DC schemes average under 9% of earnings.