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Highlights
- The aggregate surplus of UK-defined benefit funds covered by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) declined 5.8% in March.
- The majority covered by the index was down by 84.9%.
- The liabilities increased by 4.7% for the month and 26.7% for the year to £1.08 trillion.
With the pressure on pensioners growing, Britain's Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned that the Brit workers are not getting enough returns from their investments. This comes amid the reports that UK-defined benefit funds' aggregate surplus declined 5.8% in March.
With the liabilities growing due to lower government bond yields, the aggregate funding ratio stood at 133.2 as of 31 March, compared to February's figures which were 137%. The majority of the covered by the index was down by 84.9%. This, too, was down from the previous month's figures of 86.9%.
Even though the overall assets showcased a growth of 1.9% for the month, compared to the previous year, it fell by 13.6% to £1.44 trillion as the liabilities increased by 4.7% for the month and 26.7% for the year, to £1.08 trillion.
The Chancellor believed that the time has come for structured reforms to Britain's pension funds and should take a leaf out of Australia and Canada as they allow more money to be put into potentially more risky assets.
Hunt felt that the UK funds said UK funds invest too much in assets which offer low returns. He suggested that UK pensioners need to find a way to get better returns and make investing in unlisted and potentially high-growth assets easier.
Amid this, Kalkine Media explores a few pension stocks that are listed on the FTSE exchange.
XPS Pensions Group Plc (LON: XPS)
Another FTSE-listed All-Share constituent is one of the UK's leading pure pension consultancy firms. It offers its advisory services to over 93000 members across 15 locations in the country and provides a plethora of services, including XPS Pensions, XPS Investment and many more. The market cap of XPS Pensions group stood at £ 330.87 million at the time of writing. The shares of XPS Pensions Group Plc were seen trading at GBX 162.00, up by 1.57%. The value of the pension group witnessed an appreciation of 16.55% on a YTD basis and 25.58% on a one-year basis.
Barclays Plc (LON: BARC)
One of the leading financial service providers in Britain, Barclays Plc, an FTSE-100 constituent, last month hinted that it would be putting a break on its pension scheme. The banking firm stated that it would save approximately £200 million a year by stopping the pension scheme into its staff pension scheme, despite the fund's assets plummeting by £10 billion in 12 months.
BARC on 14 April was seen trading at GBX 153.84, up by 0.90% at the time of writing. Barclays Plc's share prices have appreciated by 6.71% over the past year, with an EPS of 0.38.Barclays was seen enjoying a market cap of £ 23,833.05 million and a Turnover (on book) of £64,434,431.43.
PensionBee Group Plc (LON: PBEE)
PensionBee Group Plc is another leading online pension provider that makes pension simple for the common person to enjoy a stress-free retirement. The London-based PensionBee Group is an FTSE All-Share constituent, and it was trading at GBX 97.05, up by 2.81% at the time of writing. The stock price has witnessed a fall of more than -30% over the past year. However, it has managed to give its shareholders still YTD returns of 73.89% on a YTD basis. PBEE, on Friday, held a market cap of £210.53 million.
