
	You can also keep up to date with news from PAG through our newsletter. The Equitable Life Members Support Group has an excellent pension news monitoring page which is updated daily. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Pensions and the General Election Party leaders respond to Pensions Action Group 30 April 2010 (Pensions Action Group Press Release) The Pensions Action Group wrote to each of the main party leaders on the 15th March expressing serious concerns at the damage that had been done to the UK pensions system and the severe impact on the retirement expectations of millions of workers. More specifically, we raised the shortcomings of the Government’s Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) which will affect over 140,000 people who lost some or all of their pensions before 2005. This loss was as a result of the closure of their occupational schemes, usually when their employer went bankrupt. The Government had encouraged people to join these schemes and told them that “your pension will be safe whatever happens to your employer”. But whilst the savers in Icelandic banks, and the pension funds of the rescued banks have been 100% protected, these pensioners may get as little as 50% of the pensions they saved for. Among the most serious concerns with the FAS that still need addressing are: An almost complete lack of inflation protection, which should reflect what each scheme would have provided. The lack of any compensation at all prior to May 2004 for those who retired before that date. The responses from the politicians have been disappointing: Nick Clegg: The reply from his response team did not specifically answer our concerns, although we know they have been supportive in committee. David Cameron: No direct response but a PAG member has received a reply from Theresa May which was very supportive, but without any commitment and, ominously, referred to the state of public finances. Gordon Brown Deafening Silence Given the crisis facing future private sector pension provision, and in particular the suffering of those still not receiving adequate FAS compensation for the full pensions they expected (and had paid for) we are very concerned not to have received adequate proposals from the party leaders and, in particular, no response at all from Labour. Pensions are based on trust. Why should anyone save in a pension scheme when they can see how easily an earlier generation has had their pensions taken from them? If they are at all serious about restoring confidence in pensions they MUST resolve the few remaining issues surrounding the FAS, which simply does not deliver anywhere near the 90% headline claimed both by the Pensions Minister and the Prime Minister. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ASW Pensions Protest Welsh Assembly, Cardiff Bay 07:45 to 10:30, 20th April 2010 (Pensions Action Group Press Release) Ex-employees of ASW who lost the majority of their pension when ASW went into receivership will be protesting and handing out leaflets outside the Welsh Assembly from 07:45am to 10:30am on Tuesday 20th April. The theme of the protest will be the hypocrisy of Labour's Election slogan: "A Future Fair for All" when in reality it is only fair for the pension funds of the failed banks, fair for the savers with offshore Icelandic banks but is most certainly NOT fair for the employees of ASW, and other companies, who lost a large part of their pensions when their companies went into receivership. In his keynote speech at the 2009 Labour Party conference Gordon Brown claimed (exact words, our emphasis): "Our choice was clear; we nationalised Northern Rock and took shares in British banks, and as a result not one British saver has lost a single penny." As the protestors have all lost many pennies from their pensions savings they view this speech with some anger. "We thought it was all over, why are you demonstrating again?" It has become quite clear that MPs believe that the December 2007 announcement by the Government was the end of our campaign, and that our pensions had been restored. This is not the case. We paid for, expected, and were told by the government that we were guaranteed 100% of what we had saved for, but not only are we not getting 100% we are not even getting the 90% promised by the Prime Minister! In some cases people are getting less than 50% of their pension entitlement. So far we have seen our pensions eroded by: Almost no post retirement protection against inflation Unfair treatment for seriously ill members Failure to backdate the benefits before May 2004 A restrictive CAP on our benefits which penalises members with long service Regulations that fail to recognise the benefits members have sacrificed Unfair treatment of contracted-out benefits Restrictions on members’ rights to draw benefits Summary All we ever fought for has been justice, which needed the combined strength of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, a Select Committee and the High Court to make the Government realise they HAD to respect the law of the courts and the views of the Ombudsman! We still feel that justice has not been delivered, and given the attitude to some banks’ pension liabilities we again feel second-class citizens as far as our pensions and justice are concerned. See our website www.pensionstheft.org for details of our campaign. - - - - - - [ Ends ] - - - - - - Notes for Editors 1) The Pensions Action Group is a non political organisation representing people who lost most, in some cases all, of their occupational pensions when their pension scheme was wound up, either because their employer became insolvent or the employer, (perfectly legally), decided to close the scheme. The steelmaker ASW failed in July 2002. Such members now receive some payment from either the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) or the Pensions Protection Fund (PPF) depending on the date of the wind-up, but MPs and the public are being misled about the level of protection these schemes provide. 2) Under the FAS, only pensionable service between April 1997 and the start of scheme wind up qualifies for very limited increases. All schemes in the FAS by their very nature will only ever have a very limited post 1997 qualifying period even though the majority of schemes actually provided escalation on all service, both before and after 1997. Under the PPF again it is only post 1997 service that increases in payment, but as each year passes the proportion of post 1997 service increases and in 2009 it is already potentially 12 years more than the first FAS scheme failures. 3) Unlike the Consumer Price Index and Retail Price Index pensioner inflation is greater due to their higher proportion of income being spent on energy, utility bills and council tax, and they do not benefit from the reductions that apply to some of the other components in the indices. 4) The income (pension) cap that applies to FAS penalises long service employees, and without indexation the cap reduces in value as does the FAS pension, whereas the Government told us that the cap will retain its value! 5) At a time of high unemployment it is almost impossible for the elderly (over 55) to gain employment and they are being denied access to albeit reduced pension benefits 6) The main reason that the government gives for not paying 100% is that the tax-payer cannot afford it. They have, though, paid at a stroke to restore bank pensions in full. The cost of the banks' pension was much much greater than the retoration of our pensions so this argument is plainly false. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visteon London demonstration 31 March 2010 Congratulations to the Visteon Pension Action Group on their successfull denonstration. In the sort of financial smoke and mirrors which are becoming all too familiar, their original employer (Ford) hived their jobs off into a new company which went bankrupt and they now refuse to take any responsibility for the deficit in the pension fund. About 500 supporters gathered in Holborn and then marched to Downing Street to hand in their petition to Gordon Brown, and then on to Parliament Square where they were addressed by a range of speakers. This was an excellent turnout on a drizzly day with a bitter wind blowing, and it shows that working people will stand and fight for their pensions. It was also good to see such solid support from their union, Unite, who helped to organise the event. A number of PAG members joined the march and PAG is supporting the VPAG in their battle to avoid being tipped into the PPF - more power to your elbow! There is a full account of the event on Indymedia * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Labour Party Conference 29 September 2009 Over 200 people from all over the UK turned up at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton to protest about lost occupational pensions. The protest started with a march from the pier to the conference centre where the group stood for about 30 minutes chanting. Eleven people then took part in the traditional "Stripped of our Pensions" which attracted the usual media interest. The strip was intensely filmed by Channel 4 for their Dispatches programme on pensions and by Sky for a programme scheduled for November There was a very peculiar quiet atmosphere at the conference. Normally conferences are buzzing with reporters, protests & spectators but this year everything seemed very subdued. Many Labour MPs did not attend. We only saw one other protest group (post office workers who had a 24hr strike on the Tuesday) and the largest group of individuals around the conference were children from a local school who were doing a mapping exercise with trigonometry on the beach! All very weird. As usual the weather was beautiful. In the seven years we have been protesting we have never had to do it in rain. It was so hot that several of the stripped protestors went for a swim in the sea afterwards. In his keynote speech at the conference Gordon Brown claimed (exact words, our emphasis) "Our choice was clear; we nationalised Northern Rock and took shares in British banks, and as a result not one British saver has lost a single penny." As the protestors had all lost many pennies from their pensions *savings* they viewed this speech with some anger. Contray to popular belief the pensions have not been fully restored and there are many outstanding issues such as protection against inflation. The group have already met with Lib Dem spokesman Steve Webb MP at their conference in Bournemouth and with Tory spokesman Nigel Waterstone MP at the Tory party conference in Manchester . Thanks as ever to Willie Riggans and Alan Marnes who did the difficult but important behind the scenes work liaising with the police. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * New Secretary of State and New Pensions Minister 5 June 2009 Following the cabinet reshuffle Yvette Cooper replaces James Purnell as Secretary of State and Angela Eagle replaces Rosie Winterton as Pensions Minister (who was only in the office for just over six months). This makes 15 cabinet changes at the DWP in the 12 years of labour rule, including several months when there was no pensions minister at all. As Peter Lapinskas says: “I love pensions ministers - I love the whooshing sound they make as they speed through on their way to other jobs”. * * * * * * * * * * * * * Pensions Protest at Westminster 3 June 2009 Over 100 people turned out for a protest on Parliament Square. The protest, originally planned for early May but postponed because of police problems with illegal Tamil protests, was arranged because of omissions in the proposed changes for the FAS/PPF following the recent government consultation. Given that the protest was midweek (to coincide with PMQs and take place when MPs were present) the attendance was very good with people coming from as far afield as Aberdeen, Glasgow and Wales; Kenneth Malloy, even flew over from Spain for the day!) The main points of the protest were: - Unfair treatment for seriously ill members - Almost no post retirement protection against inflation - Failure to apply the benefits before May 2004 (when the FAS started) - A restrictive cap on our benefits (which penalises members with long service) - Regulations that fail to recognise the benefits members have sacrificed - Fair treatment of contracted-out benefits - Restrictions on some members’ rights to draw benefits - No apology from the government John Bull (Ray Egan) attended and we performed the traditional "Stripped of our Pensions" photoshoot which drew the usual crowds of reporters, photographers, TV cameras and inquisitive tourists. We got good coverage in the press and on local & SKY TV. Several MPs came out after PMQs to show support including (in no particular order) Sandra Osborne, Mike Penning, Paul Burstow, Bill Cash & Stewart Hosie. Apologies for any omissions, it was quite crowded. We also had many apologies from MPs who were away campaigning in their constituencies for the elections on the following day. We should make a special mention of Alan Marne's part in the protest. For all our protests in recent years Alan has had the unenviable and unrecognised behind the scenes job of liaising with the police. Any protest in London requires a mountain of paperwork, forms, risk assessments, interviews and planning meetings with the police and persuading them to allow events such as the Stripped of our Pension photo-shoot. This event was complicated by the ongoing Tamil and other protests in Parliament Square. Originally the protest was organised by Alan for early May but this was moved at police request because the Tamil protestors were threatening violence. As a result Alan had to do the job twice. It takes a lot of work, a lot of time and repeated trips to London before the event. We should thank Alan for his work. Thanks also to Peter Wheeler and Brian Mealing who supplied the leaflets and placards, Peter Lapinskas & Adrian Segundo for the organisation on the day & the very striking yellow T-shirts and the Metropolitan police who controlled events with their usual good humour. * * * * * * * * * * * * * Welsh Labour Party Conference 25 April Report by John Benson 14 former ASW workers arrived at the Conference Centre in four cars about 8:00 am with a big banner and placards, and to give out leaflets to the politicians, their staff, delegates, and union officials. In all, we gave out over 300 leaflets. Spoke with ministers, MPs and AMs before they went in to the Conference, telling all of them that our campaign for full compensation will continue. I spoke at great length with, and gave a letter to, Paul Murphy (Welsh Secretary) together with a letter for him to give to Gordon Brown, outlining our case and asking for Gordon Brown for once to personally reply (but we won’t hold our breath on that one ) Jane Hutt (Labour AM), when told we were not going away till we get Justice, answered: “We know that.” Glennis Kinnock was asked to give Neil our love but we continue our campaign. Rhodri Morgan (First Minister) this time had no choice to take a leaflet from us. It was a pleasure to see his grumpy face - it was like a ripped dap. His wife Julie did find time to speak to us Community General Secretary Michael Leahy came to speak with us. He told us we have come a long way, but he did not think we would get full compensation. He also was told that we are not going away, and he replied that he was meeting James Purnell soon. They would not let us near the Conference entrance, but Chris Bryant (Labour MP) told me that Harriet Harman was arriving later and asked a Senior Officer if we could speak with her as she was going straight to the entrance when arriving. He said that only one person could speak with her so I spoke to her for three or four minutes, told her about how the Government could find hundreds of billions of pounds of taxpayers money to bail out irresponsible Banks, pay millions of pounds of taxpayers money to Bankers for failure etc, yet refuse to pay us our Pensions in full. I mentioned the average ASW workers Pension was £7,000. She agreed with our anger, and then stated she was trying to sort out Equitable Life. I asked her if she could arrange a meeting with the Prime Minister, or even herself, and also whether she considered what the Prime Minister and the Government had so cruelly done to us regarding our promised pensions was morally right and fair. I would call off the Protest's here in Wales in which replied, I will see, with that she hurriedly went inside the Centre. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Protest at National Assembly of Wales 17 March 2009 Report by John Benson A great protest here in Cardiff with good coverage on BBC Wales Radio, BBC Wales Television, our local paper, and our good friend and supporter, Jeff Prestridge from the Mail on Sunday sent Toby Walne along to cover the protest. We had good support from Assembly Members and their staff, with the Conservative and Liberal Democat leaders coming out to speak, also Plaid AMs. Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood made a statement in the Assembly saying that he UK Government must uphold the Parliamentary Ombudsman's recommendations. Nick Bourne, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, and Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, want me to draft a letter with all the bullet points we want brought up to support our fight for full compensation, they will then get Assembly member's to sign the letter, and then take our cause further. Once again Rhodri Morgan and his gang declined to come out and speak with us. Kirsty Williams is hopefully going to arrange a short meeting with Nick Clegg when he comes to Wales. Many thanks to all who attended the protest, especially those from the South East, who must have travelled hundreds of miles. Also many thanks to John Bull (Ray Regan), who turned up to support us, and Peter Wheeler and Brian Mealing who supplied the leaflets and placards. * * * * * * * * * * * * * Government publishes pension consultation document 11 February 2009 The Government has just issued the consultation document which will lead to the finalisation of their proposals to compensate us for the losses we have suffered through their maladministration of final salary pensions. There have been some substantial improvements but they still fall a long way short of full compensation. We have until 25th March to send them our views. In December 2007, the Government announced a series of improvements to the Financial Assistance Scheme and over the last 14 months they have organised a number of public consultations and introduced various regulations to bring these into effect. However, up until now, these processes covered only the relatively uncontroversial issues – the more ‘difficult’ issues were delayed until the final round of the consultation, and this is the round which has now started. If you have been affected by a loss to your pension resulting from the insolvency of your employer, this is what you need to do. * Download a copy of the consultation document which is available at: http://tinyurl.com/bktnlk * Read it carefully, especially insofar as it affects your own position. * If you feel that the payments on offer fall short of what you feel would be sufficient compensation, or that you will be treated unfairly relative to others, or you have other relevant points to make, write to the address below and briefly state your case. Your response will carry much more weight if you use your own words (rather than copying from other documents) and can relate your comments to your own situation. * Send your comments (to arrive by 25th March) to: Financial Assistance Scheme Consultation Department for Works & Pensions Private Pensions Policy Adelphi 3rd Floor 1-11 John Adams Street London WC2N 6HT * Email a copy of your letter to PAG (contact-us@pensionstheft.org), so that we can incorporate your views into the PAG position * Watch out for the next newsletter which will give details of the PAG position and forthcoming PAG actions. We have fought long and hard to achieve justice and have come much further than anyone thought possible at the outset, in the teeth of determined Government opposition at every stage. Now is the time to finish the job! Summary of the Government Proposals (The following document has been prepared to help you to identify the key areas in the new consultation document and respond accordingly.) PLEASE READ, UNDERSTAND AND WHERE APPROPRIATE MAKE INDIVIDUAL REPLIES. THE MORE PEOPLE THAT MAKE KNOWN THEIR VIEWS THE BETTER CHANCE WE HAVE OF OBTAINING ADDITIONAL CHANGES Ill health and early retirement There has been a vast improvement in both the ill heath and serious ill health terms but PAG still wish the Government to go further and to allow ill health payments within 10 years and not 5 years of scheme retirement age with a minimum of say age 55 Further we feel that, particularly in the current economic climate, voluntary early retirement on any grounds should be allowed after age 55, albeit with an actuarial reduction PPF allows reduced voluntary early retirement pensions Pre May 2004 service There are no signs of movement and we are studying some figures produced by FAS comparing benefits that if paid before May 2004 would lose the revaluation up to the date of payment, and therefore people would not be any better off in the long term. Costs There is a statement about tax payer costs which is wrong as they are guilty and in any event the Young review generated £1.7bn and would have been more if they had listened to Ros Revaluation pre retirement We have been seeking scheme basis of revaluation rather that RPI with a 5% maximum but there are no signs of movement. We have pointed out that those further away from retirement may not get 90% of their accrued pension because of this. Partners This looks like good news and something we have fought for but we ask anyone affected to study the terms closely and let us have their comments on the proposals People with different retirement ages in the same scheme The approach is wrong and if a scheme had benefits payable at different ages they should be paid without reduction at that age and this is I believe where it suits FAS to act differently to PPF. There are some outstanding legal issues around this including the Foster Wheeler case ruling which for some schemes gave a right to all benefits at the earliest age If anyone thinks they are in a position affected by this they should respond with details to FAS Annuity Rates We will comment here on not using the actual reduced pension for people who took tax free cash if that actual figure was available and we would also comment on the changing annuity rate market and are FAS reflecting this in their factors? The Cap The cap hits long-service members. It is an argument we have had but not won. But we would add that on one hand they are revaluing the cap for all the pension (subject to the cap) but not doing the same with the actual pension where only post-97 bit gets re-valued and at a lower rate than the cap Post Retirement indexation This has to be our main thrust and we will argue strongly with threats about resolving this. We have all seen and felt the effects of inflation and in particular the impact for pensioners There are some aspects of the detail around the interplay between FAS post-97 service indexation and any residual scheme benefits that may carry some indexation (GMP for example ) We must fight for protection of indexation on any residual benefits and for full indexation of all service if the scheme provided it Tax free cash Although not ideal, following pressure from PAG we have least got FAS to allow the GMP (Contracted out benefits) to be commuted which was not the case when we started the consultation process - - - - - - - - - - - - This is only a brief summary - you must read the document yourself and send in your own comments. We are considering what further action we need to take which includes meeting the Minister and the opposition spokesmen. Please keep us informed and also copy in your MP with any responses you send. Severe Ill-Health Notes by Dr Ros Altmann The regulations which were designed to give a much fairer payment system to those in severe ill-health have been laid in Parliament today. The aim is to have them debated by March ready for payments to start in April. This is long, long overdue and, sadly, some very ill people have died before getting the money they should have had. After very long, tortuous negotiation, these regulations are designed to offer unreduced pensions to people with serious illnesses and severely shortened life expectancy. The regulations cater for two types of such people. Firstly, they will help those who have already been ill for some time and who are obviously the most seriously affected by the loss of the pension they would have had from their scheme. The Government has finally agreed to backdate the pension to the date when the serious illness started (subject of course to some medical confirmation of this) after May 2004. The members who qualify under this category will receive the full FAS payment (without reduction for early payment) and the first payments will include a lump sum to reflect those payments which relate to past years not yet paid. Secondly, the DWP has agreed that widows of those who have died will receive the payments their husbands would have had if they had lived, rather than the normal half of the FAS payment from their date of death, so again these widows will receive some lump sum back payments. Thirdly, there will be special provisions for those who are already getting money from the FAS under the ill health scheme already in place, but whose payments have been reduced. If you are under the ill health provisions with a reduced FAS payment, then you should get back pay for the period from when you became seriously ill with severely shortened life expectancy. Fourthly, anyone who becomes seriously ill from now on and whose medical condition leads to a severely shortened life expectancy such that they may not live more than another 5 years, will be able to claim early full FAS payments. This is far better than the existing arrangements which would only pay reduced payments to reflect taking the pension early and which would be so unfair. All of this applies to those over age 55 as far as I can tell. It is now important to get these regulations debated and passed in the Lords and Commons as soon as possible. If you think these regulations apply to you, please let us know and also please write to the FAS to ensure that they have the information they need in order to assess your claim and start payments as soon as possible after the Regulations are passed by Parliament. You will need medical evidence and you will need to have contacted your trustees to let them know you are seriously ill. The DWP response to the ill health consultation is available here. * * * * * * * * * * * * * News items from earlier years can be found in the archive.