DB schemes face £6bn mortality hit

The schemes raised their predictions of how long their current pensioners would live by an average 16 months. Watson Wyatt expects this to rise to an average of 21 months for members due to retire in 15 years. The actuary says the cost of this change on companies' DB pension liabilities ranged from 2.5% to 6%. Nicola van Dyk, a senior consultant at Watson Wyatt, says: "This was an injection of realism at a time when many companies felt able to afford it. "They shouldered the additional cost of building in changed mortality assumptions in a year when asset returns were generally good and...