All Bermudian workers are required by law to be enrolled in a pension fund.

The majority in the private sector are enrolled in defined contribution plans in which they invest a set percentage of their income and on retirement, receive a pension, or annuity, based on how much they have saved.

Retirees also receive a pension from Government's Contributory Pension, but this is a fixed amount, assuming that the employee has made the correct number of contributions.

Last year, the basic contributory pension – received by 73 percent of pensioners – was increased five percent from $863.24 to $906.40 per month while the maximum pension of $1,172.5 per month was increased to $1,215.66.

There are some 9,300 seniors who receive some form of Government pension.

At the same time, the contribution to the CPF was increased by 6.5 percent.

Government workers received a "defined benefit" pension on retirement, which is based on a formula tied to their salary and the number of years they have worked, as opposed to the value of the funds they invested.

Public service retirees received increases ranging from two to eight percent in December last year.

Bermuda's public pension funds have held up better than state pension funds in the US, which had lost 37 percent of their value through the middle of December.

Some funds have fared even worse, including some that were tied in to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.