Review Of The Financial Assistance Scheme

EDM number 752 in 2013-14, proposed by Sandra Osborne on 18/11/2013.
Categorised under the topic of Pensions.

That this House notes that, whilst in opposition, the right hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate, now the Minister of State for Pensions, supported the campaign for assistance for 145,000 members of pension schemes throughout the UK when their company became insolvent, believing that all accrued rights should be honoured and that no changes should be made to pension rights that had already been built up; further notes that the Financial Assistance Scheme introduced by the previous Labour administration afforded 90 per cent of pension rights but due to inflation erosion and indexation being limited to post 1997 service only, is now in real terms nearer to 76 per cent of what was a guaranteed 100 per cent company pension, meaning that a pension promise made has not been kept; calls on the Government to review the extent to which the commitment to 90 per cent of expected pension entitlement has not been reached for those involved in the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), taking into account that some 3,000 recipients of FAS received small overpayments through inaccurate calculations by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which they now seek to recover, making these pensioners even more adversely affected; and calls on the DWP to waive the clawback.

This motion has been signed by a total of 56 MPs.