Companies' accounts are being adversely affected by their retirement savings schemes for workers, a survey has indicated.
Deficits among pension schemes are fluctuating wildly due to the credit crunch and unprecedented policy moves aimed at ending the financial crisis, a consultancy has revealed.
According to Aon Consulting, the net deficit of defined benefit pension schemes - workplace plans that are linked to employees' salaries - hit £36 billion at the end of March. This is slightly down on February's deficit of £45 billion.
However, the survey also showed that the schemes had collectively gone into the red by around £75 billion earlier in the month, testifying to the way in which scheme liabilities are being buffeted by wildly volatile market conditions.
Aon said that the Bank of England's quantitative easing programme, which began last month, could also have a negative effect. This is because the process of the central bank buying government bonds would serve to push down bond yields - which would then have an inverse effect on the liabilities held by the pension schemes.
Aon's analysis also showed that March's fluctuating workplace pension deficits could have caused havoc with participating firms' accounts - with those declaring financial results earlier in the month forced to declare higher liabilities than those who released results later on.
Sarah Abraham, consultant and actuary at Aon, said: "Pensions accounting has become a lottery based on a company's choice of accounting date… Whilst there is always an element of luck as to how the deficit will look at the reporting date, this has been exacerbated by the recent asset volatility."
