The Pension Protection Fund, the UK government's safety net for corporate pension funds, has revealed that over 1,000 pension schemes in the UK made payments to mitigate their deficits in the first year of its operation, from April 2005.

At the NAPF annual conference and exhibition in London yesterday, PPF chair Lawrence Churchill said: "Business has responded magnificently to the incentives scheme that we outlined last year. Over 1,000 funds have notified us of deficit funding contributions."