On the go: The aggregate deficit of the 5,450 UK defined benefit schemes in the PPF 7800 Index fell to £6.4bn at the end of April 2019 from £43.9bn at the end of March 2019.
Funding was nearly 100 per cent, increasing from 97.4 per cent at the end of March 2019 to 99.6 per cent.
Total assets were £1,649.2bn and total liabilities were £1,655.6bn, but there were still more schemes (3,089) in deficit than in surplus (2,361).
Commenting on the latest figures, Andy Tunningley, head of UK strategic clients at BlackRock, said: “Much like the public enjoying the sunny weather over the Easter weekend, UK defined benefit pension scheme trustees will look back fondly on April as funding levels rebounded.”
He added that growth assets were helped by equity markets continuing to push higher, “largely driven by a positive start to the Q1 earnings season and the continuation of muted geopolitics throughout the month”.
Rising gilt yields meant that liabilities fell, though yields remain below their end of February levels.
“Despite liabilities rising £50bn over the first four months of the year, the strong start to the year from risk assets (with most schemes seeing 10+ per cent returns) means UK pension scheme funding levels are 1.6 per cent higher than where they ended 2018, with aggregate deficits down £25bn,” said Mr Tunningley.
For some schemes, he noted that there were opportunities over April to lock in funding gains, “either through increased hedging at opportunistic moments or following predefined funding level triggers being hit”.
