PwC calls for UK budget deficit to be trimmed
Fri, 23 Oct 2009
The government must take action to reduce its budget deficit before the pension crisis worsens, it has been claimed.
Earlier this week, the Office for National Statistics reported a deficit of £11.3 billion, up from £7.6 billion 12 months ago.
John Sison, head of the government and public spending group at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said this was "broadly in line, or just a bit better than what people had been expecting".
However, he claimed that the UK needs urgently to get to a position where it does not have a structural budget deficit.
Mr Sison claimed pension provisioning needs addressing in order to restore saver confidence.
"[There] is the long-term fiscal problem of the aging population with all of the health and social care [to consider]," he added.
At the last count, the government's total liabilities for unfunded, public pensions stood at £650 billion.
According to official figures, the pension saving ratio fell to 2.5 per cent in 2007, its lowest level since the late 1950s.
State pensions are paid by the government from the National Insurance Fund, with total payments standing at £57 billion in 2007, up from £34 billion a decade earlier.
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