Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing measures to support pensioners whose defined benefit schemes are underfunded.

The UK has a robust and flexible regime for protecting defined benefit (DB) pensions.

Sponsoring employers are ultimately responsible for meeting the promised pensions and DB pension schemes are subject to the statutory funding objective which requires them to have sufficient and appropriate assets to provide for their pension liabilities. Schemes must be valued, at least every three years, and where there is a funding deficit a recovery plan must be put in place, and the deficit filled as soon as the sponsor can reasonably afford.

The Pensions Regulator has a range of enforcement powers and can intervene to protect member benefits when needed.

Where an employer becomes insolvent, and the scheme winds up underfunded, benefits are underpinned by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) which can provide compensation at 100% of scheme benefits for pensioner members and 90% of scheme benefits for deferred members.