Can you prove the value of your ABCs? A first glance at PPF levy changes

The Pension Protection Fund will now require schemes to provide proof of the value of asset-backed contributions used to reduce levy bills, as part of the lifeboat's amendments to levy calculations.

The changes were as a result of the triennial consultation on levy rules, which ran from May to July of this year. It was also the first consultation since Experian was appointed as the insolvency risk provider.

David Taylor, director of strategy at the PPF, said the responses to the new model on the whole were positive, but there were some areas of concern.

One was the treatment of asset-backed contributions. According to the consultation response, the PPF will now consider all asset types, not just UK property.

Taylor said there had been concerns by both the PPF and the Pensions Regulator about some of these assets and the value attributed to them. 

“[ABCs] come in lots of different guises and some of them are more likely to be valuable to us if a company were to go bust,” Taylor said.  

Schemes with ABCs will need to certify some information for the PPF, and that information will be used over and above what is in the accounts, he added. 

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