Pension woes, cold-calling, tax bills and spare cash

Britain’s gold-plated pensions now have record-breaking liabilities of £1.75 trillion. The Telegraph reports that the EU referendum triggered a rout in their core gilt and equity holdings. The UK has almost 6,000 defined benefit schemes – plans which pay members an amount in retirement tied to their final salary. Just 950 of these schemes were in surplus on June 30, with the rest hoping to make up the shortfall from long-term investment returns. In total, defined benefit funds are £383.6 billion underwater, compared to £294.6 billion just a month ago, as the tumbling UK government bond yields added to liabilities while global stock markets wiped value from the schemes’ equity investments.

In other pensions news, the Daily Mail reports that thousands of savers with old pension plans have had their retirement hopes dashed by a double whammy of crashing returns and the worst payout rates in history.

A Money Mail investigation has found savers who were sold with-profit policies in the 90s will receive just an eighth of what they were led to expect.