Aon warns companies must take action to reduce the costs of the PPF levy

A series of Aon seminars across the country will explain the impact of new levy increases, how it will affect pension schemes and how its financial impact can be reduced.

Companies must take action now to reduce the cost of the Pension Protection Fundís (PPF) proposed levy for 2008/09 and 2009/10, according to Aon Consulting, a leading pension, benefits and HR consulting firm. Aon Consulting warns that without advice companies could face significant additional costs to their pension schemes.

In a series of seminars across the country in September and October, Aon Consulting specialists will explain how the new levy will work and how its financial impact can be reduced. Representatives from the PPF will be at the events to talk about the levyís new measurement dates, while representatives from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the company appointed by the PPF to assess insolvency risk, will also talk about the new failure score methodology.

To shed light on the proposals, Aon Consultingís experts have conducted extensive research into the levy and will present case studies which demonstrate how firms that are impacted can make levy savings, and how Aon have saved their clients over 40m in the past two years.

Although the deadline has passed for the calculation of the 20007/08 levy, the seminars will also guide attendees through the actions that Aon Consulting are currently taking to appeal successfully against these levies.

Paul McGlone, Principal & Actuary at Aon Consulting said:

With 2007/08 representing a five-fold increase on the previous year, keeping your scheme's levy at a low level is important. For schemes and companies that are prepared to devote energy to this issue, there are considerable savings to be made. On the other hand, those that don't tackle the issue will find not only that they miss out on the benefit from levy reductions, but they may also see increases over time to compensate for the actions taken by other schemes.

The seminar details are:

- Birmingham: Thursday, 27 September(10.00 - 12.00)
- Bristol: Wednesday, 3 October (10.00 - 12.00)
- Leeds: Thursday, 11 October (08.30 - 10.30)
- London: Thursday, 25 October (08.30 - 10.30)
- Aon is also currently setting up two seminars in Scotland on 30 October

Further details can be found at www.aon.com/uk/en/about/Events/ppf.jsp