Pensions - Articles - PPF Annual Report shows robust performance in 2016/17

 The figures show a strong year for the PPF in the financial markets with invested assets up from £23.4 billion to £28.7 billion. As a result of good investment performance and lower than expected claims, the PPF’s funding ratio has increased to 121.6 per cent, up from 116.3 per cent last year.

 Alan Rubenstein, Chief Executive of the PPF, said: “The last year has been full of significant developments in the world around the PPF. We’ve had a successful year and we continue to make steady progress towards our strategic objectives. Members can be reassured by the protection the PPF provides.

 “However, we are not complacent as we continue to face large deficits in the schemes we protect.

 “Our robust strategy has put us in a good position to manage the uncertainties ahead and our long-term risk model predicts that we will achieve financial self-sufficiency by 2030 in 93 per cent of scenarios.

 “Our reserves help protect the long-term sustainability of the fund, allowing us to meet future claims, however the current figure remains modest relative to the net deficit of the schemes we protect, which stood at £226.5 billion at the end of March.”

 Arnold Wagner, the PPF’s Chairman, said: “We are now an established part of the pensions landscape, and members of defined benefit pension schemes in the UK can be reassured that we will protect their financial future should their employer fail.

 “It’s easy to forget that until the PPF was set up people who worked all their lives to build up their retirement savings could have been left with nothing when their employer went bust. If a scheme enters the PPF, its members will get more than the scheme’s assets could have otherwise provided. If a buyout can provide higher than PPF levels then that is a good outcome – but if members receive PPF compensation, that should not be described as a bad result for their pension.”

 To view in full the PPF’s 2016/17 Annual Report and Accounts please click here

 The PPF’s Funding Strategy Update will be published later in July.