Cash is priority for staff.

TEESSIDE stands divided over the importance of a final salary pension, according to a nebusiness poll.

Around 48% of respondents said they would turn down a job if they weren't offered a defined benefits scheme as part of the package.

Local bosses say today's workforce does not have sufficient knowledge about pensions and is more interested in hard cash to cope with rising food, fuel and mortgage costs. The results fan fears that Britain is heading for a poverty stricken old age.

Robert Bennett, founder of Stockton vehicle retail firm RMB Automotive Ltd, said pensions were no longer a key motivation for workers.

He said: "Eighty per cent of people coming to interview don't ask the question.

They are more concerned with salary and tangible benefits that they can have today."

He said more could be done to help people negotiate the pensions maze.

"If you stopped the average man on the street, he probably wouldn't know what a final salary pension was," he said.

Entrepreneur and business turnaround specialist, Mark Blayney, who runs Darlington finance brokerage firm, Creative Finance, said he had made "zero" contributions to his pension pot during the last seven to eight years.

He said: "Pensions are a long-term issue. Employees are more concerned with today's fuel bills and mortgage repayments.

Pension provision is dying in the private sector and staff are being incentivised in other ways."

For more on this story, go to nebusiness.co.uk

Would you turn down a job offer if the employee didn't offer a final salary pension scheme?