The collapse of Carillion and the payout of £900m from the Pension Protection Fund will not be a “hit to the public purse” (Report, 25 January). The PPF receives its money by levies on other existing pension funds. These levies have to increase to cover the demise of underfunded schemes. Since there are few, if any, new pension schemes being started, this burden is being forced on a reducing number of remaining schemes.
This is fundamentally unfair. When companies knowingly pay dividends and bonuses instead of making payments into their pension schemes, they are taking money from their own employees, and when these companies go broke they are taking money from other companies’ employees.
A more equitable levy would be on those shareholders who received dividends when companies were underfunding their pension schemes. All payments to shareholders are recorded, so it would not be impossible for the PPF to demand these levies from those that received these dividends.
Peter Brown
Redbourn, Hertfordshire
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