It says that a number of defined benefit pension schemes have entered the Pensions Protection Fund even though the main sponsoring business has not been insolvent.

Commenting on such cases, John Broome Saunders, actuarial director at Broadstone, said "Clearly these are cases where the sponsor is struggling financially.

"However, because the protection offered by the PPF gets more generous as members get older – and in particular as members reach retirement age – the Pensions Regulator has a clear incentive to drag schemes into the PPF sooner rather than later, to keep the costs of the PPF down.

He added: "Whilst this may be in the interests of the PPF, it is clearly not in the best interests of scheme members, who are being denied the possibility of receiving full benefits should a struggling sponsor manage to turn itself around and become profitable in the future.

"When a sponsor is struggling, we'd like to see the regulator take a more measured, considered approach to funding that reflects the fact that companies do recover and which in our view is in everybody's interests - the members, the sponsor, and the economy."

Broadstone Pensions & Investments Ltd has over 200 employees with offices throughout the UK and is an independent financial adviser, authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.