Pension trustees have weeks to address deficits

THE trustees of the pensions of tens of thousands of workers have just weeks to address the deficits in the schemes or face prosecution by the Pensions Board.

There are approximately 1,212 defined benefit (DB) pension schemes being operated in employments for 254,325 members around the country and, of those, anywhere between half and three quarters are estimated to be in deficit.

Many DB schemes have a high exposure to equity investment making them ill-equipped to withstand the pressure imposed upon them by the global economic downturn. Furthermore schemes are having to deal with the sizeable increase in the life-expectancy of their members and the inherent pressure on the scheme which extra years create.