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The key assumptions concerning the future and other key sources of estimation uncertainty at the Balance sheet date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are discussed below:
The Group determines whether goodwill is impaired at least on an annual basis. This requires an estimation of the value in use of the cash-generating units to which the goodwill is allocated. Estimating the value in use requires the Group to make an estimate of the expected future cash flows from the cash-generating unit and also to choose a suitable discount rate in order to calculate the present value of those cash flows. The carrying amount of goodwill at 31 March 2009 was £17,055,000 (2008 — £16,689,000). Further consideration of the impairment of goodwill is included in note 14.
The determination of the Group's obligations and expense for defined benefit pensions is dependent on the selection, by the Board of Directors, of assumptions used by the pension scheme actuary in calculating these amounts. The assumptions applied are described in note 25 and include, amongst others, the discount rate, the expected return on plan assets, rates of increase in salaries and mortality rates. While the Directors consider that the assumptions are appropriate, significant differences in the actual experience or significant changes in assumptions may materially affect the amount of the Group's future pension obligations, actuarial gains and losses included in the Statement of recognised income and expense in future years and the future staff costs. The carrying amount of retirement benefit obligations at 31 March 2009 was £8,764,000 (2008 — £1,592,000).
