Fresh Aegon job cuts take cull to more than 1,000

The jobs will go in the life and pensions business, mostly in Edinburgh, and 17 at the Lytham St Annes office of Aegon Direct, which was launched two years ago to provide annuity advice.

Aegon said the capital required to run this business can be better used in other areas to provide a greater return for shareholders. Aegon Direct will wind down over the next few months and close at the end of the year.

The latest announcement forms part of the group’s strategy to refocus the UK life and pensions business and reduce operating costs by 25 per cent. Aegon said it will minimise compulsory redundancies where possible.

The company has so far met £58 million of the annualised £80m cost-saving target and UK chief executive, Adrian Grace, said: “All of the decisions we’ve taken over the last 12 months have taken us closer to delivering our restructuring plans. We will continue to look at all cost saving opportunities to meet our target by end 2011.

“These are challenging times but we are on track to deliver and ensure Aegon’s future.”

Since January 2010, the firm has reduced the payroll by 1,106. These include 329 vacancies that have not been filled and 91 employees who moved internally from Aegon UK to one of the group business units. There were other cutbacks through the closure of Aegon Benefit Solutions.

A further 170 jobs are expected to transfer to private equity firm Cinven following the sale of the Guardian closed life and pensions book announced last month.

Brian Linn, general secretary of Aegis, the trade union, said: “For our members, today’s announcement brings months of uncertainty to an end. However, we appreciate that a considerable number are in areas impacted by redundancy and have some difficult choices to make.

“We are confident the majority of job losses will be achieved voluntarily and we will resist any attempts to make our members compulsorily redundant.”