Many of them were enrolled in occupational pension schemes that were linked to their final salaries.
Occupational pension funds everywhere were flexing their muscles as big stockmarket investors.
Occupational pension schemes are under increasing scrutiny, although they are now rare in the private sector, they are still common in the public.
The percentage of women working full-time who were members of their current employer's occupational pension scheme rose from 52% in 1987 to 60% in 2002.
The USS is the latest occupational pension scheme to curb benefits.
If you are self-employed, or don't have an occupational pension, then any money you want at retirement will have to come from your own savings, and the main savings vehicle that people use for retirement planning tends to be a personal pension.
The only thing that is included in this definition of wealth is the extra, over and above state or occupational, pension saving.
In 1997 a conviction that companies paid out too much to shareholders, instead of investing in expansion, caused Gordon Brown, then the British finance minister, to scrap the tax credit on dividends, a change that took money away from occupational-pension funds.
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I've been getting lots of different questions from you on the subject of pensions, including issues surrounding the state pension, personal pensions and occupational pensions.
Whether it be occupational, stakeholder or private, "a pension is a pension is a pension", Mr Pickering says.
"Under this new system, you would get the full flat-rate pension, plus you would continue to get your public sector occupational scheme, " he added.
From next year, the pension credit will top up the incomes of 5m pensioners including those with modest occupational pensions or income from saving.
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