The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has confirmed that it has set a pension protection levy estimate of £700 million for 2009/10.
This fulfils a promise made in August 2007 when the PPF said that it would set a levy estimate of £675 million for the next three years, indexed to wages, so long as there was no significant change in risk.
As also promised earlier in the year, the PPF has confirmed a final levy scaling factor (which schemes can use to calculate their individual levy bills) of 2.22, in advance of the 2009/10 levy year.
The PPF stated that the decision to keep the same levy estimate as last year, indexed to wages, was not an easy one but it believes it is one that had to be taken to help reduce the burden on levy payers, particularly during the current economic downturn.
The decision to publish the final levy scaling factor number in advance of the 2009/10 levy year will help levy payers with their financial planning and provide further certainty.
The PPF has responded to industry feedback during the consultation on the 2009/10 levy by making minor changes to its other 2009/10 proposals, set out in the policy statement published last week.
