The aggregate deficit of the 6,150 schemes within the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) 7800 index rose to £70bn over March 2014.

It rose by £8.8bn from a deficit of £61.2bn at the end of February 2014, but was an improvement on last year when a deficit of £210.8bn was recorded at the end of March 2013.

Over the month, total scheme assets amounted to £1,148.2bn. Even they remained unchanged by the end of March, they increased by 2.7% over the year.

Total scheme liabilities rose by 0.7% to £1,218.1bn over the month, reflecting unchanged gilt yields and a fall in index-linked gilt yields.

As a result, the funding ratio fell from 94.9% to 94.3% during the month of March.

Over March 2014, 15-year gilt yields were unchanged, 15-year index-linked gilt yields fell by 5 basis points and the FTSE All-Share Index fell by 3%.

There were 4,046 schemes in deficit, compared to 3,947 schemes at the end of February 2014, and the number of schemes in surplus fell from 2,203 in February to 2,104 schemes at the end of March.

First published 09.04.2014

monique_simpson@wilmington.co.uk