Definition: Employers' pension schemes

Category: National accounts

In several Member States, corporations, including public corporations, may set up specific pension schemes for their own staff which they manage directly. They are referred to as “non-autonomous employers’ pension schemes” in ESA 95 and these corporate pension
schemes are not treated in national accounts as social security schemes, i.e. the flows of contributions (or injections of funds by employers) and pension benefits are not part of government revenue or expenditure (except if government organises a scheme for its own
employees). Therefore the flows are allocated to the sector in which the employer organising the scheme is classified.
In this context, employers may set up unfunded or funded schemes. The main difference is whether “segregated reserves” exist. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/KS-BE-04-003-EN.pdf