I sat on my employer's pension committee for 18 years, and I agree. DB pensions, whether state-run or private, are truly pensions. DC "pensions" are not. As you say, they are tax-advantaged savings schemes. Same for personal retirement saving schemes. (In Canada we call them Registered Retirement Saving Plans or RRSPs for short.)

But the downside is that they are costly and carry considerable risk and uncertainty for the employee. And they are lucrative for the financial services industry. Plus, as I have said elsewhere recently, they presume a level of financial sophistication that most workers simply don't have.

Aha, OK I see your point; private defined benefit pensions would still fulfil your criteria, but I would say that defined contribution pensions might not (much would depend on the scheme). But if you last sentence is you essential criteria then actually non-funded public pensions would surely qualify as that is what they do (on retirement)?

That would be a reasonable description of the state pension, certainly; however for private pensions the contributions are yours (indeed currently there is a shift to include such assets in inheritance tax when un-used on death).