More pension schemes are rescued

More people now come under the PPF's umbrella

Another 15 insolvent pension schemes were taken over by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) in August.

The PPF said this brought to 57 the number of schemes that it had rescued since it was established in 2005.

It means that 15,935 people are now receiving their pensions from the fund, or will do so soon.

Many of the schemes have just a few hundred members but some are larger, such as the pension scheme of Leyland Daf Vans, taken on last month.

The pension protection fund is a scheme designed to bail out insolvent pension schemes where the employer has gone bust.

Although set up by the government, it is partly financed by a levy on all private sector final salaryoccupational pension schemes.

Schemes go through an assessment process that takes at least a year before they are fully absorbed by the PPF, which then takes responsibility for making the pension payments.

This length of time is to make sure that all the records are up to date and so that the PPF can work out exactly how much the insolvent scheme's assets are worth and how much it has to pay to each member.

Some schemes have taken much longer to process and the PPF currently has 210 schemes on its books while they are being assessed, with 125,000 members between them.

The PPF does not pay full compensation to all members of schemes that have gone bust.

People who have reached their own scheme's pension age will get 100% of their pension payments.

But those yet to retire are guaranteed only to receive 90% of their accrued pensions.

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