It gives the example of one Irish workplace where fewer than one in 10 employees had bothered to top up their entitlements through additional voluntary contributions or AVCs, despite the generous tax breaks available.

Alarmed by the poor take up, the employer decided to add a sweetener by matching any money that workers put into AVCs up to a maximum 5% of salary.

The result is that about half the workforce is now making pension top ups.

According to Deloitte:

"Any employer who offers a defined contribution scheme to their employees should examine the contribution levels and consider the standard of living that their scheme will provide for its members post retirement."

The task should get easier from next year when pension schemes will have to give members regular projections of the sort of income they can expect in retirement. This should give a wake-up call to thousands of people facing serious pension shortfalls.

SAVE THE Revenue had good news last week for some PAYE workers including doctors, hospital consultants, engineers, firemen, miners, nurses and pilots in Aer Lingus. They all qualify for higher flatrate expense allowances in 2006, which can be written off against tax.

The tax break, worth 155,000 a year for 870,000 PAYE workers, is attractive because it is one of the few allowances still available at the top income tax rate of 42%. For most workers, however, the flat-rate allowance has been frozen for a number of years. The allowance is supposed to compensate workers for out-of-pocket expenses incurred while carrying out their jobs.

The amount you get depends on your profession.

If you work down the mines, you are entitled to an allowance of 1,155 a year, which translates into a tax saving of 485 for those in the top tax bracket.

At the other extreme, kitchen porters get an allowance of only 21 a year, worth a miserable 4.20 to those paying the standard rate of 20% tax.

ONE TO WATCH WITH an estimated 16bn being unlocked from SSIAs over the next year, the Financial Regulator has fired a warning shot across the bows of financial advisers eager to get their hands on at least some of the money.

In survey after survey, SSIA savers report a willingness to roll over some or all of the money into other investments. The Financial Regulator is worried that some of it could fall into the hands of unscrupulous advisers who will persuade people to divert their money into unsuitable investments that pay high commissions to the adviser.

Most investment-based SSIAs are open-ended so that, even after the account matures, there is no need to switch the money to an alternative investment.

In a letter sent to advisers in recent weeks, the Financial Regulator warned them to leave a detailed paper trail setting out why any replacement investments they recommend are in their clients' best interests.

"Where one investment product, which replaces an existing one, is being recommended to a client, the firm should ensure that it records the reasons for that replacement, " according to the letter. "The recommendation should set out why this replacement policy is more beneficial to the customer than continuing with the existing policy."