Defined Benefit pension schemes enjoyed an “unprecedented” £400bn fund improvement in 2022, according to pension consulting and admin firm XPS Pensions Group.

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association - the trade body that represents 1,300 pension schemes with 20m members - has joined the chorus of concern about the Government’s potential axing of the Retail Prices Index (RPI), the measure used to decide many annual pension increases.

Pension consultancy Barnett Waddingham has warned that the potential axing of the RPI inflation measure by the government could have ‘seismic’ implications for pension schemes.

The trustees of hundreds of pension schemes are to be ordered to urgently review the data they hold as part of a crackdown on poor record-keeping.