星空传媒

The Pensions Trust is in talks with several large housing associations about joining its social housing fund.

The move comes just a week after the disclosure that contributions to the trust's social housing pension scheme would have to rise to cover a 拢98m increase in its deficit to 拢117m. The discovery of the shortfall led pension managers to decide that joint employee and employer contributions would have to rise 2.2% from April to maintain the current level of benefits.

However, the trust believes the rise could be limited to 1.9%, with a change in early retirement payments.

The trust's position will also be boosted by the fact that, compared to other schemes, its fund's performance has been good.

A report last month by the Association of Consulting Actuaries said the average combined employer and employee contribution was expected to go up 3.8% over the next few years.

The associations involved in the discussions with the trust have not been named but Trevor Smith, consultant to the trust chief executive, said some big associations were expected to join the 700 members. They are unlikely to include the associations that left the scheme last year, such as Shaftesbury Housing Group.

Smith said the introduction of the FRS17 accounting standard would encourage housing associations to join the scheme. Under this rule, companies must declare the deficits in-house pension schemes on their balance sheets but do not have to declare deficits in group schemes, such as the social housing pensions scheme.

He said the scheme had fared well in the gloomy pensions climate because its membership is young: the average age of members is just 43.

He added: "We have not had to sell assets to pay pensions while the market is depressed because the cashflow is more than adequate to pay out. We had positive cashflow of 拢78m in the last year. If the markets come back to where they were then, the scheme will look pretty good."