More than seven out of ten final salary pension schemes are now closed to new entrants, a report revealed today.

The Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) said 72 per cent of final salary schemes would no longer let new members join them and 9 per cent had also stopped accepting contributions from existing members.

The figure includes 17 per cent of employers who have closed their scheme during the past six months.

ACA warned that if this trend continued, less than 15 per cent of final salary schemes would be open to new entrants in two years.

During the past five-and-a-half years, almost a quarter of firms have set up defined contribution schemes, under which they only guarantee how much they will pay into a scheme, and not what it will be worth at retirement.

But the research also found the amount paid into schemes by both employers and employees had increased.