UK pension deficit underfunded by almost £20bn

A larger number of company pension schemes are under-funded than was originally thought, a government body has admitted.

Pensions lifeboat the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) reportedly admitted yesterday that it had previously underestimated the deficit of UK defined benefit schemes by almost £20bn.

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The PPF adjusted the latest aggregate deficit to £97.5bn – the worst for almost five years and a huge drop from a £3.2bn surplus 12 months ago.

A PPF spokesman told Global Pensions yesterday: “We made a mistake. The error was spotted and we rectified it.”