DB pension surpluses remain at record highs, up £57bn year-on-year in October, XPS analysis shows

DB pension surpluses remain at record highs, up £57bn year-on-year in October, XPS analysis shows

18 Nov 2025

• XPS Group estimates UK DB pension schemes maintained a £240bn aggregate surplus against long-term funding targets, up £4bn in October 2025 and £57bn year-on-year.
• Aggregate scheme assets increased over October 2025, as matching assets rose in value as bond yields decreased. Growth assets, such as global equities, also displayed positive performance.
• Aggregate scheme liabilities also increased, driven by a reduction in gilt yields.

New analysis from XPS Group shows that UK pension schemes maintained strong funding positions throughout October 2025, relative to long-term funding targets. With aggregate assets totalling £1,207bn and liabilities of £967bn, schemes achieved a record funding level of 125% of the long-term target value of liabilities, as at 31 October 2025.

​​​​​​Jill Fletcher, Senior Consultant at XPS Group said: “Funding levels of UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes remained strong throughout October 2025 supported by widespread hedging against gilt yield movements which protected long-term funding positions, and kept long-term strategies on course, as gilt yields fell.”

Notes:

XPS DB:UK tracks the funding position of UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes on long-term funding target and buyout bases, enabling trustees and corporate sponsors to see how their scheme’s funding compares to the wider pensions landscape. The model was refreshed and relaunched in July 2025 to take account of published information from the Pensions Regulator and Pensions Protection Fund and insight from XPS’s market leading Member Analytics and the XPS Data Pool.

XPS DB:UK Funding Watch monitors the combined deficit and funding level of UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes (i.e. all registrable schemes - including hybrids) on a long-term target basis (using a discount rate of Gilts +0.5%) and XPS’s in-house buyout basis. It combines XPS’s market leading Member Analytics and the XPS Data Pool with the award-winning journey planning tool, Radar, enabling real time monitoring of changes and analysis of the reasons behind any movement.

An online version of XPS DB:UK is available here:

https://www.xpsgroup.com/services/xps-pensions/xps-dbuk-funding-watch/