Defined benefits Pensions are deemed the best to have because they base your annual workplace pension on a proportion of your salary when you retire. That’s why they are often known as Final salary schemes. They’re very expensive to fund and have been in deficit in many companies for years. Now the HR consultants Mercer estimate that there could be in surplus this year for listed Irish companies with DB pension schemes Peter Gray is from Mercer consultants and spoke to Joe this morning.