Pensions - Articles - Despite political doubt pension deficits remain stable

 As at 30 April 2017, JLT estimates the total DB pension scheme funding position as follows:

 Charles Cowling, Director, JLT Employee Benefits, comments: “Markets have been surprisingly stable at a time of political uncertainty in the UK and across Europe. As a result whilst pension deficits remain high due to quantitative easing and record low interest rates, they have remained pretty much at their current levels for some time now. This is despite the threat of inflation caused by the devaluation of sterling and rising import prices which is likely to flow through to higher pensions.

 “On the positive side, depending on your perspective, the latest mortality tables from the CMI suggest that life expectancy is perhaps not increasing as much as had been expected and this will reduce deficits. But with many pension schemes now embarking on their triennial actuarial valuations and deficits likely to be much bigger than three years ago there are going to be some difficult discussions between companies and pension scheme trustees, as trustees could be looking to negotiate significant increases in deficit funding.”