If you were thinking of buying your loved-one flowers and chocolates on Valentine’s Day, you haven’t been paying attention. But find a cheap personal pension.Ask your union to campaign for an equivalent salary hike.Lobby your MP, or ask your union to do so. And write to John Denham, Pensions Minister, at the House of Commons, London.. If it says no, it has in effect cut your wages 0.9 per cent.Ask your employer to make the same contributions into a personal pension You will get a bigger rebate.

It depends on the level of contributions from you and your employer, plus the pension fund’s performance.Find out whether your employer will increase the amount it pays into the scheme. Unlike final-salary schemes, your pay at retirement is not guaranteed. Established in 1869, it is the sole entry under “Snuff” in the London Yellow Pages. Obviously, the film- makers spared no expense in their effort to recreate the Edwardian microcosm which populated the ill-fated liner. Or look out for the coupon on this page.WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE AFFECTEDAsk your pensions department if you are in a “group money-purchase scheme”. We will be pressing the Government to hold a consultation [with interested parties].”`The Independent’ has published a `Free Guide to Direct Pensions’. The guide, written by this paper’s personal finance editor, Nic Cicutti, is sponsored by Eagle Star It is available free by calling 0800 77 66 66.

In fact, said the Government Actuary, the majority were small – and needed bigger expenses. But Mr Denham set the rebates as if they were all big, and cheap to run.Mr Murray said: “There is a fundamental inconsistency between the Government’s declared policy of supporting occupational pension provision and the policies which the Treasury has been pursuing. A copy of the Actuary’s report to the minister (placed in the House of Commons library) reveals that he was asked to assume that the only group money-purchase pensions were large ones with cheap operating costs. As long as Harriet Harman, the Secretary of State for Social Security, was struggling to lure people into private, “stakeholder” pensions, this might have been upsetting.Stephen Cameron, a pensions expert at Scottish Equitable, said: “We believe the rebates were increased to avoid a massive return to Serps by personal pension holders.”Peter Murray, chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, points out that Mr Denham claimed to have taken into account the advice of the Government Actuary. They must either wind up, or pay much less to their members.Experts also believe Government generosity towards personal pensions stems from a fear that Gordon Brown’s July Budget, which took money from personal pensions by abolishing tax credits on dividends, would cause millions to return to Serps. But has he taken a large sledgehammer to crack a small nut? Pension gurus believe he has also wiped out thousands of smaller schemes which can no longer exist as they are. The glittering saving, of 1 per cent of payroll, benefits not the members but the company.

It has been estimated that if all companies followed this route, the Government could pay out an extra pounds 1.5bn a year. Easy money for the companies and a big loss for the taxpayer.By cutting the rebate by 0.9 points to 2.2 per cent, Mr Denham has taken the joy out of this game. By treating it instead as a group money-purchase scheme – the type run by WH Smith – the company can get much more government money in rebates. When the government pays the rebates, it pays less to cover expenses involved in running final-salary schemes than it does to other schemes.How can a finance director raise the amount he receives in rebate? By using different rules. But the most plausible theory is that it is trying to stop large companies taking advantage of a form of “arbitrage” – switching to the most beneficial option offered within the labyrinthine world of pensions legislation.Large companies such as Guinness – and possibly up to 70 further companies – have been taking advantage of new laws since the Pensions Act 1995, which came into force last April.The Act allows the companies to gain a saving worth up to 1 per cent of their pay-roll – a big temptation for any finance director – by manipulating the rules as to how much rebate they should get.Most large companies run “final salary” pensions – schemes which guarantee an income worth up to two-thirds of a member’s salary at retirement. It is a very worrying time for employees who will really need a great deal of explanation and reassurance.”So far, no Government minister has explained the reason for this cut.