Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.
Administration December 11, 2007
UK Schemes Show Deficit for First Time in a Year
December 11, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Pension
Protection Fund's (PPF) monthly snapshot of UK pension scheme
finances showed they were back into deficit last
month.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
BBC News reports that in November the 7,800 defined benefit schemes in the UK were together £5 billion in the red – their first collective deficit since November last year.
In October, the PPF’s “7800 index” showed a collective surplus of £53 billion, but the impact of changes in the share and bond markets during November was to push the 6,014 schemes in deficit further into the red, from £48 billion to £73 billion, the news report said. The combined surplus of the 1,736 funds which were in the black shrank from £101 billion to £68 billion.
However, the overall position of pension funds is still better than a year ago when the total deficit was £30 billion.
UK pension scheme finances have generally been on an upward trend since 2002, when the deficit stood at more than £150 billion, according to BBC News.