ePolitix.com stakeholders respond to a new report - from the actuarial industry’s pension board - suggesting that the pensions 'black hole' is closer to £150bn than the £50bn originally estimated.

Stakeholder Response: Help the Aged

Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, said: "The really worrying thing about these ever-increasing estimates of pension deficits is the potential impact they will have on company finance directors.

"If the ballooning deficit forecasts trigger an acceleration in pension scheme closures, they will have done no-one a favour.

"What we may be seeing here with the release of these worrying new figures is the best being the enemy of the good."

Stakeholder Response: ACCA

John Davies, pensions spokesman for ACCA, said: "The figures are undoubtedly startling but need to be treated with caution.

"The calculation methods used are not officially approved by the actuarial profession and the authors of the report say only that the combined FTSE100 pension deficits ‘could be’ as high as £150 billion.

"Of course the true scale of pension deficits, whatever that might be, cannot and should not be ignored.

"But at a time when companies are reported to be at last succeeding in whittling away their fund deficits, scare stories about what may or may not be the full extent of pension liabilities is not what the fragile pensions sector needs to sustain its recovery.

"This recent story does, however, highlight the high degree of uncertainty which remains in the pensions industry and the extent of the work still to be done to regain the confidence of consumers and employers."