Savers are nursing losses approaching 10% in their pension schemes since the start of the coronavirus market panic, while holders of share Isas have lost as much as a quarter of all their money in some funds.

The stock market rout means someone who had accumulated £250,000 in their pension scheme at the start of this year will have seen it shrivel to about £225,000 on Monday. Holders of final salary-style pensions, mostly in the public sector, lose nothing as their payouts are guaranteed.

However, further falls in the market will mean these schemes will drop further into deficit, requiring employers (such as local authorities and universities ) to somehow find the cash to top them up.

One saving grace is that the vast majority of pension schemes invest less in equities than in the past, so a 5% fall in the market does not equate to a 5% fall in the total value of the fund.

The typical pension fund is about 60%-65% in shares, with the rest in government and corporate bonds, and property. The value of the government bond portion has actually gone up during the crisis.

When you see stories saying government bonds have gone negative (as did a lot of UK government bonds on Monday) it is not negative for your pension. It means the value of the bond has gone up, even if the yield (the interest rate) has gone down.

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