The money companies are ready to pay to encourage retirement savers to leave their pension schemes is steadily falling.
Pension transfer values tracked by financial experts were down £5,000 in a month – from £236,000 in December from £231,000 in January.
The golden goodbye peaked at almost £245,000 in April 2017 after a steady rise dating back to April 2016.
Since the peak, the transfer value has steadily has swung between £230,000 and £240,000.
Sankar Mahalingham, head of direct benefit growth at consultancy Xafinity Punter Southall said: “We have seen a steady fall in transfer values over January 2018. Increases in gilt yields have been the main driver, with inflation remaining relatively stable.”
Pension transfer value tracker
The Xafinity Transfer Value Index tracks the transfer value that would be provided by a direct benefit scheme to a member aged 64 who is currently entitled to a pension of £10,000 each year starting at age 65 and increasing each year in line with inflation.
How much are companies offering?
FTSE companies have offered transfer values of 20 to 30 times predicted pension payments for more than a year.
Some workers expecting of £25,000 a year have had offers of between £500,000 and £1 million to leave their employer’s scheme.
The offers have come as firms look to reduce their pension liabilities because they have a huge gap between the cash and assets they must pay pensions and the amount retirees will receive.
In some cases, the deficit is larger than the company’s value on the stock market.
BT has the biggest deficit – the company has underfunded the official pension scheme by around £1.8 billion.
