under the old design. To the participant, however, it appears as if there is a period where no new benefits are accrued. Hybrid designs also typically eliminate the more generous early retirement provisions of traditional pensions. Because younger workers have more years in which to accrue interest and pay credits than those approaching retirement age, critics of cash balance plans have called the new designs discriminatory. On the other hand, the new designs may better meet the needs of a modern workforce and actually encourage older workers to remain at work, since benefit accruals continue at a constant pace as long as an employee remains on the job. As of 2008, the courts have generally rejected the notion that cash balance plans discriminate based on age, while the Pension Protection Act of 2006 offers relief for most hybrid plans on a prospective basis. Although a cash balance plan is technically a defined benefit plan designed to allow workers to evaluate the economic worth their pension benefit in the manner of a defined contribution plan (i.e., as an account balance), the target benefit plan is a defined contribution plan designed to express its projected impact in terms of lifetime income as a percent of final salary at retirement (i.e., as an annuity amount). For example, a target benefit plan may mimic a typical defined benefit plan offering 1.5% of salary per year of service times the final 3-year average salary. Actuarial assumptions like 5% interest, 3% salary increases and the UP84 Life Table for mortality are used to calculate a level contribution rate that would create the needed lump sum at retirement age. The problem with such plans is that the flat rate could be low for young entrants and high for old entrants. While this may appear unfair, the skewing of benefits to the old worker is a feature of most traditional defined benefit plans, and any attempt to match it would reveal this backloading feature. Requirement of permanence To guard against tax abuse in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has promulgated rules that require that pension plans be permanent as opposed to a temporary arrangement used to capture tax benefits. Regulation 1.401-1(b)(2) states that "[t]hus, although the employer may reserve the right to change or terminate the plan, and to discontinue contributions thereunder, the abandonment of the plan for any reason other than business necessity within