FINAL salary pensions in the private sector may become a thing of the past in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, it has been revealed.

A survey by the Chamber of Commerce, Hereford-shire and Worcestershire, has revealed that one in five firms in the two counties have already stopped paying into schemes for new employees.

It had been feared that a meeting of the Pensions Commission this week, to discuss the future of UK pensions, would force companies to pay into the initiative. But it has now been officially recognised that it is coming to an end.

If they had been forced to make a contribution, the Chamber's survey rev-ealed, one in five firms said they would lay off staff and just under a third would have passed the cost on to customers by raising prices.

Christopher Harvey, policy and representation manager at the chamber, said: "Final salary pension schemes will almost certainly dwindle in number and may disappear altogether. Unfortunately, I think the days of the final salary scheme may well be numbered. They do require a considerable input of cash from the companies concerned, cash that increasingly is difficult to find. While those people already in the schemes are likely to be protected, I would expect that there will be no new ones."

Jeremy Matthews, an independent financial adviser with English Mutual in Worcester, said people should take advice straight away or face a poverty-stricken old age.