It is the last day of Spring and tomorrow will be summer. This is a morning to be optimistic and I am – that PPF will get to where it and many like me want it to be!
I clicked this video from Shalin Bhagwan, Chief Actuary at the Pension Protection Fund . I wanted to share it on this blog because I heard Shalin talk in Edinburgh on the work that PPF could be doing to improved the lot of struggling DB schemes to continue delivering pensions and giving back to wider society. I am pleased that Stephen Glover is hosting an event on 12th June where Shalin will be a panellist.
Here he is explaining why he’s talking to the wider public and not sitting in his Croydon eerie!
The PPF appears to be being kept in reserve by the Treasury, not least because the Pension Schemes Bill that is imminent will be focussing on DC (not PPF) but that we expect a second Bill later in this parliamentary term which will focus more on Defined Benefits (very much PPF). Here is Shalwin’s dignified response to its offer being rejected for now..
It is very important that the PPF has a spokesperson and Shalin is the unlikely but effective spokesperson for an organisation that is an example of how Government can set up and maintain a backstop for defined benefit pension schemes.
Here is his assessment of Government papers released this week. The key response is to the PPF being rebuffed as a…
Earlier this week I gave publicity to Aon’s research as to which size of scheme is capitulating to insurance
The upside of extending the PPF to a Government consolidator would have been to reduce the buy-out of smaller schemes. But the Government are still , it appears, keen to promote pension superfunds and the ABI still has a say in what goes into Treasury thinking.
The more extravagant proposals, put forward by LCP but clearly considered both by Government departments and the PPF have not been taken up and looking less likely to come in any Bill are….
Shalin is too ambitious a man, PPF too successful a scheme to give up at this point. There will be some reading this blog who will be swearing into their breakfast (or whatever) that I am ignoring the huge amount of corporate money that has been spent in levies to get the PPF there.
This is consistent with the ridiculous conservatism we have had on funding where pension schemes have been overfunded and herded into disastrous de-risking strategies. The PPF is over-funded but thankfully did not invest sufficiently in geared LDI to not be able to do the kind of consolidation that is needed. It is between £10bn and £14bn in surplus and Shalin is showing considerable tolerance in not losing his temper.
But if you want to know Shalin’s and therefore the PPF’s actuarial position, read this excellent post on running on!
