Companies' financial situations are always taken into account when drawing up plans to recover deficits in pensions funding schemes, the Pensions Regulator said today.

Amy Balchin, spokesperson for the Pensions Regulator, commented that there are measures in place to ensure that if a company has a deficit it can be addressed so as not to adversely affect employees. She noted that companies are dealt with on an individual basis.

"We will be looking at the circumstances of the employer; whether it is a stronger or weaker employer and how big the deficit is when they are coming up with that plan," she added.

The Pensions Regulator is charged with protecting work-place pension schemes and, where possible, reducing the number of schemes failing financially and in turn being dealt with by the Pension Protection Fund.

As such it can call for companies to develop plans to rebalance their pension deficits and require them to make contributions to their schemes if they are deemed to be being neglected.