Sainsbury‘s is predicted to announce its pension deficit has reached £1 billion, according to analysts.

As it prepares to reveal its half year results on Wednesday, the supermarket retailer is expected to become the latest to announce a significant black hole in pension funding, estimated to have grown from around £389 million in March to upwards of £900 million.

The grocer stated it would spend £125 million plugging the deficit this year and is also expected to raise a further £50 million to aid the Home Retail Group deficit, which it acquired recently.

READ MORE: Tesco £5 billion pensions deficit puts 350,000 pensions at risk

This comes after Tesco’s own pensions deficit eached more than £5 billion as well as analysts downgrading Debenhams due to an estimated £250 million deficit.

Low value government bonds are increasingly coming under scrutiny, especially in the retail sector, as they are severely impacting companies‘ with large staff numbers pension schemes.

Following the BHS scandal in which 22,000 employees‘ pensions were effected leaving a deficit of £571 million, large retailers are continuing to struggle with the costs a large work force.

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