LONDON, 25 September 2012 – Aon Hewitt, the human resource solutions business of Aon plc (NYSE:AON), has welcomed the decision by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) to limit the overall increase in the levy it collects in 2013/14, but is counselling schemes to be cautious for future years.

Milan Makhecha, principal consultant at Aon Hewitt said:
"The PPF's decision will provide some much needed respite for UK pension schemes from the significant financial pressures they are already facing.  But while this is good news, the PPF has also revealed the large variation in levy expected at the individual scheme level – so around one in five schemes could still see a levy increase of greater than 15% compared to this year. 

"We therefore urge schemes to continue to manage the various parameters that affect their own levies in a proactive fashion – namely their sponsors’ Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) failure scores and certification of the funding, contingent assets and investment measures they have in place.  In our experience this can be very beneficial.
 
Milan Makhecha continued:
"The PPF has also made it very clear that if current financial conditions persist into future years then it will not intervene again to limit increases – it has described them as “inevitable”.  In our view, this is stark a warning by the PPF that the intervention it has made this year is a 'one-off', and it will not bow to pressure by the industry or government again."      

Media Contact: 

Colin Mayes                                            Giles Abbott 
 Aon Hewitt                                               Capital MSL
 01372 733689                                       020 7307 5340
 colin.mayes@aonhewitt.com              giles.abbott@capitalmsl.com