The number of crashed pension funds in the government's lifeboat scheme swelled to 120 today after seven final-salary schemes were admitted.
More than 2,500 former workers at a carpet factory in Lancashire, a car repair firm in London and a leather goods maker in Somerset will be guaranteed retirement incomes after their occupational schemes gained entry to the Pension Protection Fund.
Within the next two years the fund expects another 357 company schemes to be rescued, adding 202,380 members to the 36,799 already protected.
Earlier this week the £4bn fund unveiled plans to increase investments in private equity and corporate bonds to end its reliance on equity markets and increase returns on investments.
The fund has been criticised by those who believe the large increase in crashed schemes will overwhelm its capacity to pay pensions, and it will have to increase levy payments or cut benefits to pensioners.
The PPF was set up in 2005 to rescue schemes of crashed companies following a series of insolvencies that left workers with worthless pension promises. Pension rules forced occupational schemes with large deficits to favour pensioners when a parent company went bust.
About 7,000 solvent final-salary schemes must pay an annual levy of £770m to support PPF pension payments and allow the fund to invest to cover future liabilities.
Pension payments are projected to rocket over the next 20 years as the baby-boomer generation retires. Alan Rubenstein, the chief executive, is under pressure to show the fund can match payments when costs reach their peak in 2030.
Pension experts have also expressed concern that a steep rise in company insolvencies this year could add to the PPF's future funding deficit.
The National Association of Pension Funds, which represents schemes worth more than £800bn, argued today that radical reform of pension accounting rules was needed to prevent companies from closing schemes, often to avoid being pushed into insolvency.
The organisation said it would call a summit to lobby for reforms to the current standard, IAS19, which requires companies to value the assets and liabilities of their pension funds "in a way that both overstates the likely long-term costs of funding the pensions and results in a high degree of volatility appearing on balance sheets".
The International Accounting Standards Board plans to review the standard before the end of next year.
Chairman Lindsay Tomlinson, said: "The standards have contributed to the decline in defined benefit provision over the last 10 years which has seen the number of schemes in the private sector remaining open to new members fall from 86% to 23%, a reduction of two million people.
"Current accounting standards have been very damaging to defined benefit provision, leading many companies to close their schemes. Pension funds are long term institutions but today's accounting standards fail to reflect this," he said.