The UK’s largest employers are finally taking account of rising life expectancy when totting up the full cost of their pension liabilities, a survey of accounting disclosures at FTSE 100 companies has revealed.

Such companies have increased their assumptions of how long former workers will draw a pension in retirement by an average of 7 months. This raises calculation of overall liabilities by roughly 2 per cent. The biggest rises are coming from those who had previously used unusually low assumptions, according to the survey from Mercer, a benefits consultancy