Despite employers contributing £75bn to schemes, pension liabilities of UK plc have doubled in six years, with deficits rising by approximately £120bn.

The data was released by Hymans Robertson and found that over the past six years, asset performance has been failing to keep pace with the growth in liabilities.  When you look at the amount of money that has been funded for pension schemes, it still was not enough to mend the gap. 

HR experts believe that the data sends a strong message to organisations and pension trustees to place a greater emphasis on managing the risks in pension schemes.

Figures released by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) show that de-risking has come to a screeching halt. The numbers show that even the FTSE 350, despite paying in cash contributions, ended up in a worse position than in the year previous.

Human resource experts explain that all of this data underlines why pension scheme trustees and sponsoring companies should take more of a slow approach to funding pensions.  They should take the time to carefully consider what the risk truly is, to help reduce the possibility of deficits becoming worse over time.