If you ask experts what the scariest thing about the pensions black hole it is that no one knows how big it is.
Following the collapse of Carillion, the Prime Minister said there would be “tough new rules for executives who try to line their own pockets by putting their workers’ pensions at risk.” In February last year, a green paper was issued calling for views on giving the Pensions Regulator the power to issue “substantial fines on companies for corporate transactions which have a detrimental impact on schemes”. The resultant White Paper is due this spring.
The problem of managing the huge defined benefit pension schemes of older retirees and workers is only going to grow in the coming years. Risk manager Cardano places the total of UK private sector defined benefit schemes’ solvency deficit at over £780bn and according to the Pension Protection Fund, the combined chasm of the two-thirds...