The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is a statutory corporation, set up by the Pensions Act 2004, and has been protecting members of eligible defined benefit (DB) pension schemes across the United Kingdom since 2005. It protects close to 10 million members belonging to more than 5,200 pension schemes across the UK. If an employer collapses and its DB pension scheme cannot pay members what they were promised, the PPF will pay compensation for their lost pensions. Despite being a public body, the PPF is not funded by the government or the taxpayers. It has four sources of funding including an annual levy charged to all the eligible pension schemes under its protection, income from its investments, assets from the schemes that transfer into the fund and recoveries, including money and other assets, from the insolvent employers of the schemes that transfer into the fund. The PPF is one of the UK’s largest asset owners with £39 billion of assets under management. It also administers the Fraud Compensation Fund (FCF) the government’s Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) and across both the PPF and FAS looks after nearly 440,000 members. The PPF is run by an independent Board and accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions. Kate Jones has been the chair of the Board since 1 July 2021, and has been a non-executive board member since February 2016. Oliver Morley CBE has been the PPF’s chief executive since March 2018. Eligible schemes The PPF protects most occupational defined benefit pension schemes in the UK although it doesn’t protect public sector defined benefit pension schemes that are covered by a crown guarantee. [4] All eligible schemes are required to pay an annual levy which contributes towards the administration of the fund and the compensation it pays to its members. Scheme assessment The PPF does not automatically take on the responsibility for a DB scheme as soon as their employer suffers an insolvency event. The scheme and its members will first enter an assessment period which usually lasts between 18 to 24 months. During this time, the PPF will carry out a series of tasks and activities to check that all the scheme data, including members’ details, is accurate so that members can receive the right benefits. Scheme trustees remain responsible for the day-to-day running of the scheme whilst it is in assessment including paying pensioners