The End of enhanced Early Retirement
From Ibmukpensions
G14. Why is IBM proposing to change its policy on early retirement?
A. Approval of early retirement for employees who are currently members of some of the Defined Benefit plans (C, and N plan members), is granted today at the discretion of the company. This carries a significant cost implication for the business. IBM wants to manage this cost going forward in line with our objective to be more competitive.
G15. What does the new early retirement policy mean after April 2010?
A. The majority of defined benefit members require consent from the Company to retire before their normal retirement age on enhanced terms (this is usually referred to as Early Retirement Discount Factors). As the increasing cost to the business of providing these enhancements is no longer sustainable, the Company will only grant consent to early retirement on enhanced terms where business requirements allow it to do so. Active members of the Defined Benefit Plans will still be able to retire early after 6th April 2010 but, in the event that an enhancement is not granted, they will do so on non-enhanced terms. In practice as all current active members will become deferred from 5 April 2010, only Enhanced M Plan members will remain eligible for the enhanced early retirement terms.
G16. I would like to take early retirement on the enhanced terms before the proposed changes are implemented - will this be possible?
A. If the proposals are implemented as planned, we will open an early retirement "window" after the consultation period is over, to allow employees who are considering early retirement to assess their situation before requesting early retirement on the enhanced terms. To be eligible for the early retirement window you will need to be aged 50 or over at the time you retire. At the end of the early retirement window, each request will be considered by the business units and their decisions will be confirmed to members. We propose this "window" will be open in October / November 2009.
