Published in Financial Reporter By Rozi Jones 16th August 2016

Today’s inflation rise will herald “yet more misery for already deficit-laden British pension funds”, warns deVere CEO Nigel Green.

CPI inflation rose by 0.6% in the year to July 2016, taking it to the highest level seen since November 2014.

Green says that the news is a “bad omen for pensions and the wider economy” moving forward, and believes the situation is yet to get worse.

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He continued: “We can expect inflation’s upward trend to gain momentum as the Brexit battered pound’s depreciation really begins to take hold in 2017.

“The black holes engulfing many company pension schemes are set to get even worse due to today’s increase in inflation. The funding gap is likely to soon reach £1tn.

“More pressure is the last thing these schemes need. They have seen their deficits grow due to falling gilts following the Brexit decision and due to the Bank of England cutting interest rates to 0.25 per cent and boosting Quantitative Easing by £60bn, in an attempt to cushion the UK from a Brexit shock recession.”

Green believes that in order to survive, these schemes will “need to make drastic changes to the terms of employees’ pension schemes”, warning that Brexit will ‘topple’ some firms and their pension schemes. He said that “all in all, Brexit has been disastrous for UK pensions.”

The deVere CEO concluded: “Brexit has helped create the mother of all storms for pensions and I don’t believe we’re even in the eye of that storm yet.”