ONS

The amount employers are paying into schemes hit record levels last year as defined benefit deficits continued to warrant cash injections, research from Towers Watson shows.

The Office for National Statistics' decision to downgrade the status of the retail prices index and publish two additional inflation measures could lead to the index being dropped, warn consultants.

More Britons are working beyond the state pension age as they delay retirement, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

The vast majority of respondents to the National Statistician's consultation on the retail prices index called for no change because of fears over the impact of any alteration on savings.

The reduction in defined benefit schemes has resulted in an overall lower pensions coverage, research from Office for National Statistics shows.

Scheme deficits increased significantly in January according to the latest funding survey, compounding mixed messages on the state of defined benefit funds during a month of stock market gains.

The gap between the Retail Prices Index and Consumer Prices Index widened to 0.6 percentage points in January, according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Deficits at the UK's biggest schemes rose more than 20% in January despite big gains on the stock market, according to research from Mercer.

So in the end the Office for National Statistics bucked expectation and decided to keep things the same. Well, apart from adding one more measure of inflation to their three already often-criticised measures.

The ‘no change' announcement by the Office for National Statistics has added £20bn to FTSE100 deficits as gilt market expectations for inflation increased.