The amount of payments contributed by employers to their pension schemes almost halved over the two-year period to 2008, figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed.

The ONS said contributions made to pension schemes by employers dropped from 13.2 billion pounds in 2006 to 6.8 billion pounds in 2008.

The drop is attributed to a sharp fall in the value of pension scheme assets, which in turn was caused by plunge in the stock markets.

The value of British fell from 1,093 billion pounds in 2007 to 928 billion pounds in 2008.

The total income received by the pension funds fell from 71.8 billion pounds in 2006 to 58.6 billion pounds in 2008, representing the biggest drop since 1984.

Speaking on the issue, the ONS said, “It was driven by a reduction in employers' special contributions and a drop in transfers between pension funds.”

It may be noted here that most of the employers have already closed their defined benefit schemes to new members.