Challenging start to 2016 for UK Defined Benefit Schemes with £228bn deficit

04 January, 2016

JLT Employee Benefits has reported that UK defined benefit (DB) schemes ended 2015 with an aggregrate deficit of £228bn. This figure has only dropped marginally from the 2014 deficit of £248bn. JLT Employee Benefit’s director Charles Cowling said that pension schemes with triennial valuations last year will have seen record deficits. As a result of changes in 2016, including the ending of contacting-our for DB schemes, “these changes mean that even with deficits and soaring costs aside, DB penson provision is looking less and less attractive in the private sector”. He also noted that “it is quite possible that we could get through the whole of 2016 without any interest rate rise [in the UK]. With the added worry of a Brexit vote, there is every possibility that 2016 will prove to be another very difficult year for DB pension schemes”.