Famous companies across Britain struggling with financial headache

Telecoms provider BT has a 7.5bn shortfall in its pension fund and earlier this summer the regulator Ofcom told it, after an initial consultation, that it would not be allowed to increase wholesale prices to help plug the hole.

British Airways, which posted record annual losses of 531m in May, has a pension fund black hole of 3.7bn. It eased the pressure recently when it reached agreement with its pension trustees over a recovery plan but the size of the shortfall nearly derailed its forthcoming merger with Spain's Iberia.

Britain's top 100 companies made a record 17.5bn in pension contributions last year with some paying more into their schemes than to shareholders, according to consultancy Lane Clark & Peacock. It found market turmoil forced FTSE 100 firms to increase contributions to defined benefit schemes by 50 per cent to help plug shortfalls.

Higher contributions as well as rallying markets helped cut the corporate pension deficit to 51bn at the end of June this year from 96bn last year. But there are now only four FTSE 100 companies who still offer final salary pensions to new employees.

The public sector, where final salary schemes are have so far largely survived, also faces serious problems over funding retirement benefits, particularly at the Royal Mail where deficits could soon reach 10bn.

Last week thousands of BBC staff voted in favour of industrial action in a row over allegedly "punitive" changes to pensions as managers tackle a deficit of more than 1.5bn.