Pensions - Articles - Government & industry must avoid knee jerk reactions on BHS

 Richard Butcher, MD at PTL, commented: “We are only a couple of weeks into the BHS saga, but already the story is starting to sound like the script of a pension disaster movie. If it wasn’t for the loss of pension rights for the innocent members, a disinterested party might find it entertaining to watch.

 “Back in the early 2000s there were a couple of very high profile business collapses, with the consequence that workers lost accrued pension rights and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and its time-limited predecessor, the Financial Assistance Scheme were created. The PPF is, of course, today an established component of the pension world (although now perhaps at risk because of the size of the BHS problem) but we really need to avoid other, ‘knee jerk’, legislations designed hastily off the back of each event.”

 Butcher continued: “What is clear from the aftermath of all this and in the intensity of the scrutiny, is that every party in any DB funding process: trustees, employers and the regulator, will be tempted to become more conservative, more hard line, and their actions more aggressive . We are all in for a far tougher, far rougher round of funding negotiations over the next cycle.”