From The BBC:
Pension fund finances worsened in August, with the collective deficit of the UK’s final salary pension schemes widening to £36.7bn.
That was up from the deficit of £24.1bn at the end of July and far worse than the situation a year ago when schemes had a surplus of £59.1bn.
The figures from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) cover nearly 7,800 schemes, mainly in the private sector.
The PPF said the cost of funding pensions had continued to rise.
Liabilities
The assets of all the schemes measured by the PPF – including shares, bonds, cash and property – actually rose by 4.2% during August.
But the reason for the schemes’ total deficit swelling was that the value of their liabilities rose by an even greater percentage.
Under the accounting method used by the PPF, the value of liabilities actually needed to provide the pensions, now and in the future, rose by 5.6% in August alone.
“During the month of August 2008 there was a 3.5% increase in assets due to rising UK and global eq…
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