According to recent figures, some nine out of every ten defined benefit pension schemes now face a funding shortfall. Pension schemes are now something like £200 billion in the red.
The Pensions Protection Fund revealed new figures that showed some 6,914 pension schemes in deficit at the end of December, compared with 6’690 in November. The funding shortfall could represent a major problem, and seems to be far worse than in December 2007.
The PPF is designed to help pension scheme participants who lose their retirement savings when their company goes under. As many as 7,800 pension schemes are part of the PPF.
In other pension news, many pensioners are entitled to claim cold weather payment following freezing weather in January.




