On the go: The Pension Protection Fund saw the value of its reserves decrease by 16 per cent in 2019-20 due to the impact of the markets’ reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic on its return-seeking assets.
According to its annual report and accounts, published on Thursday, the pensions lifeboat’s reserves stood at £5.1bn at March 31 2020, compared with £6.1bn in the previous year.
Nevertheless, PPF’s assets grew to £36.1bn from £32.1bn, with an investment return of 5.2 per cent — the same as in 2018-19 — despite market turbulence caused by the pandemic.
There were 36 new claims in 2019-20, up from 23 the previous year, but the value of these claims was lower — £0.3bn compared with £1.7bn in 2018-19, the report stated.
Lisa McCrory, PPF’s chief finance officer, explained that the lifeboat’s strategy “is built to withstand periodic market shocks”.
She said: “Our long-term, low-risk investment approach and our hedging programme performed as intended, protecting the PPF and limiting the impact of market turbulence.
“While our reserves decreased year on year, we’ve seen a good recovery in the current financial year.
“We expect the macroeconomic situation to be tough for the foreseeable future, but we’re confident in our ability to protect all current and future members.”
Oliver Morley, chief executive of the PPF, said: “We will never be complacent, but the PPF has coped well throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Our operations were uninterrupted, we maintained high levels of customer satisfaction and we made very good progress on our strategic plan.”
