The UK's massive pensions black hole could actually be three times worse than feared according to new calculations from a report commissioned by the UK actuarial industry's Pensions Board.
The new figures suggest the UK’s pension shortfall for final salary schemes actually stands at GBP150 billion for the nation’s 100 biggest companies, three times the current accepted and ‘official’ deficit figure of GBP50 billion.
The commissioned review document said the original estimate of the gap between pension entitlement and the cash to pay for it does not take into account the true cost of companies’ liabilities under their current schemes, This is Money has reported. The document revealed that other estimates fell short of the real deficit because they failed to take into account longer life expectancies.
The damning findings comes as a number of leading UK companies, including Rentokil Initial and the Co-operative Group, have revealed plans to end their final salary pension schemes over fears of not being able to afford them.