Recession 'has put pension schemes at risk'

Pensions schemes are at greater risk of going bust due to the recession, it has been suggested.

The warning has come from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), which has today (January 20th), published its Purple Book review into such schemes in partnership with the Pensions Regulator.

Figures contained in the report show that company liquidations have risen by 50 per cent over the past two years.

This, along with a fall in the yield on government bonds, has placed final-salary retirement fund schemes at greater risk, with funding being worsened by the declining financial markets.

Chief executive of the PPF Alan Rubenstein noted that this year’s Purple Book highlights the fact that the ’dramatic deterioration in the economic and financial environment during 2008/09’ has resulted in ’heightened risk for the [pension] schemes in the PPF universe’.

The Pensions Regulator this week urged trustees of pensions to look into occurrences of fund managers loaning out stock for fees, after it emerged that this is happening without approval.ADNFCR-2318-ID-19567600-ADNFCR