Pensions Regulator to investigate £56m Wilko pension fund deficit

The family shareholders of collapsed retail chain Wilko are set to come under investigation over dividends they paid themselves in the run-up to the firm calling administrators in.

The Pensions Regulator is set to launch the investigation after it emerged there is a £56m deficit in the Wilko pension fund, according to The Sunday Times.

PwC, the administrators of Wilko, believe the deficit is even higher on a buy-out basis – up to £76m.

The Wilko pension fund will be looked by the Pension Protection Fund. The worst case scenario for the former shareholders of Worksop headquartered Wilko is that the Pensions Regulator could force them to pay up any shortfalls if it is found that the owners put the fund at risk.

When Wilko fell into administration over the summer, it emerged that the Wilkinson family had paid themselves and former shareholders £77m over a period of 10 years. This include a dividend payment of £3m last year when Wilko fell to a loss of £39m – and in 2018 when the discount retailer posted a deficit of £65m.

Lisa Wilkinson, Wilko shareholder told The Times in the initial days after the collapse of the company: “The board checked that we’d got profits or reserved profits, there was sufficient cash, we went through the right governance, the auditors checked it off.

“Is there a bit of me lying awake at night saying I wish we’d never taken a penny of dividends out? It might have made us survive a couple of months longer, [but] it really wouldn’t have made a difference.”