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Thursday 8 March 2012

Does my deficit look big in this QE?

Hows yoiur pension looking? According to the National Association of Pension Funds, not so hot. In fact, in total net pension fund values are down £90 billion, with a deficit of nearly £500 billion since the start of quantitive easing.

This isn't so much due to the loss of interest to date, or even the loss of asset values, although both are a factor, but is mainly due to the fact that in the current interest rate environment, the discounted value of the funds' liabilities look a lot bigger.

So expect your pension pot to be cut again or capped, all to keep those nasty banks in business.  First they screwed the tax man, now they are taking your pension.

N.B. this of course does not apply if you are on an unfunded public sector pension scheme, notably working at HM Treasury. Your pension is unaffected by this measure.

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