The Purple Book 2024

We’ve published the Purple Book 2024, the most comprehensive data and analysis of the UK defined benefit (DB) pension landscape.

The Purple Book, also known as the Pensions Universe Risk Profile, highlights trends in DB scheme funding, demographics and asset allocation. It provides us with an in-depth understanding of the risks we face from the universe of schemes we protect. 

The 19th edition of the Purple Book shows the strong net funding position of the universe of DB pension schemes has remained largely stable over the past year. 

For this year’s Purple Book, we’ve used an enhanced roll-forward methodology to calculate assets and liabilities which now uses a wider range of market indices, more granular asset allocation data, and estimates for benefit cashflows. We’ve also used new enhanced scheme status data as analysed by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). These updates apply to this year’s figures, together with a restatement of 2023 figures for ease of comparison. 

The Purple Book 2024 reports that:

• The number of DB schemes in our eligible universe has fallen from 5,063 to 4,974 due to schemes winding up, scheme mergers, and schemes entering PPF assessment
• The net funding position on a section 179 basis improved from a surplus of £206.9 billion in March 2023 (restated) to a surplus of £219.2 billion in March 2024
• The aggregate funding ratio increased from 120.1 per cent in March 2023 (restated) to 123.1 per cent in March 2024
• Schemes continued to invest a large proportion (70 per cent) of their assets in bonds
• The proportion of scheme assets invested in equities fell from 18.8 per cent in March 2023 (restated) to 15.5 per cent in March 2024