Funds

Universities in England and Wales are doubling or tripling their hardship funds in anticipation of “unprecedented” demand from students struggling with the cost of living, amid fears of widespread dropouts unless ministers offer more support.Just days into the new academic year, university and student leaders said they were already seeing signs of students being unable to cope, including not affording books for their courses, working 40-hour weeks, and being at risk of homelessness.Charlie Jeffery, the vice-chancellor of York University, said students were facing general inflation combined with a “chunky real-terms...

BT’s pension scheme has revealed the value of its assets plummeted by an estimated £11bn in recent weeks, after the meltdown in UK government bond markets following Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.The disclosure in the annual report published by BT Pension Scheme (BTPS), one of the UK’s largest company retirement plans with almost 270,000 members, provides one of the first insights into the scale of the financial impact on funds.Pension schemes with more than £1tn invested in them came under severe strain following a dramatic rise in interest rates on long-dated UK...