Deficits

Premier Foods has seen the deficit in its schemes fall slightly from £282.4m to £272.6m over the first six months of the year despite its decision to suspend £47m a year in deficit contributions.

Deficits for in UK schemes continue to climb according to research from Xafinity Corporate Solutions and JLT Pension Capital Strategies.

AEA Technology has suspended contributions to its defined benefit scheme as it seeks an emergency restructuring after being "overwhelmed" by its growing pension liability.

Taylor Wimpey has seen shortfalls in its two defined schemes grow by £65m over the last year despite making deficit recovery payments of £46m.

Barclays has seen its pensions shortfall shoot up by more than a billion pounds over the last six months, despite paying in £700m to cut the deficit.

AEA Technology has seen its share price collapse to less than 0.04p after admitting that its pension deficit of more than £165m meant it was almost impossible to sell the business.

Self-administered trusts used for non-academic university staff are using a 45 basis point spread on discount rate assumptions for different schemes, potentially adding millions to liabilities.

Total defined benefit liabilities for UK schemes deflated to £267bn last month after May's record high of £312bn, according to Pension Protection Fund data.

Bluechip firms have seen their pension deficits more than double over the last year despite ploughing in a combined total of £11bn to plug deficits, says LCP.

The Bank of England will pump a further £50bn into the lagging economy through quantitative easing, amid industry warnings that companies will be forced to plug rocketing deficits.