Andrew Young, a senior member of the Government Actuary's Department, is to head the government's review into whether extra private funds can be found to boost the assistance scheme the government has set up for people whose pensions went under when their companies went bust.

Some 125,000 people lost money when their schemes were wound up before the government set up the Pension Protection Fund, with the current Financial Assistance Scheme, set up to help them, paying lower benefits than that.