Final blow for pensions: All 'gold-plated' schemes could be gone within ten years, says experts

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The warning came as figures revealed record numbers of the gold-plated pensions closing to existing workers.

These employees, who were relying on a final salary scheme to pay for their retirement, are now finding themselves forced into less generous company pension plans.

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Every private sector final salary pension scheme could be gone within ten years, a former Government adviser said yesterday

Dr Ros Altmann, a former Treasury adviser, said: "It is inevitable that pension schemes will continue to close."

The number of private sector firms shutting their final salary schemes - which pay a percentage of a worker's earnings on retirement - has soared 60 per cent to its highest since records began.

For many years such schemes have been closing to new employees - just a third of them are still open to new recruits. But workers in existing final salary schemes are now feeling the pain.

Bosses say the costs of rising life expectancy mean they have to switch staff into cheaper plans.

Dr Altmann, who predicted the loss of all final salary schemes, said she was worried that thousands of workers did not understand the huge financial impact of losing a final salary pension.

On average, a boss pays about 15 per cent of a worker's salary every month into a such a fund.

They pay much less into cheaper schemes and, when the Government's Personal Account pension is introduced in 2012, they will pay a minimum of just three per cent.

Figures from the Pensions Regulator show that 214 final salary schemes were closed to existing workers in 2006.

The watchdog said just 18 were closed to existing workers in 1998, the first year for which figures are available.

Laith Khalaf, of financial advisers Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Most people would give their eye teeth for a final salary pension. But these figures show that even if you are one of the lucky few, your days of good fortune may be numbered."

The closures highlight Britain's "pensions apartheid". The vast majority of the 5.8million public sector workers have a final salary pension. In the private sector just 15 per cent have the same luxury.