The John Lewis Partnership has decided against closing its final salary pension plan, meaning it will remain as one of the only UK retailers to still offer such a generous scheme to employees. However, the amount employees receive will decrease and they will have to wait five years, rather than the current three, before they can sign up to the plan.

The announcement follows a year-long review in which the company investigated whether or not to close the scheme to new members, to link the retirement age to future increases in the state pension retirement age or to tie increases during retirement to the consumer prices index (CPI) rather than the current, higher, retail prices index (RPI).