An age old old age problem

It's now routine for journalists to use the words looming, pensions and crisis in the same sentence and this blog post is no exception. Cornwall Council's pensions liability appears to have nearly trebled in just one year:

"Also reflecting the general economic downturn is the change in the net pension fund liability, which has increased from £303m to £872m, valued on the basis required by financial reporting standard FRS17. (I have absolutely no idea what this is - GS) Just over £100m is due to the addition of the net pension liabilities of the former district councils."

Notwithstanding the addition of the old district councils, it seems previous valuations of the pensions liability were wildly over-optimistic.