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Dispossessed Pensioners are on the March
By Nina Montagu-Smith, Money Telegraph
April 19, 2004
Workers who lost pensions when their company schemes were wound up with shortfalls marched to New Scotland Yard on Saturday to "report the theft".
More than 200 companies have gone bust since 1997, when legislation governing winding up pensions came into effect and about 70,000 people have been left facing a retirement in poverty.
They say the Government should compensate them because they took responsibility for themselves by saving for retirement at the recommendation of ministers, and the Financial Services Authority and National Association of Pension Funds still described final salary pensions as "guaranteed" last year.
Andrew Parr, 61, one of 1,000 people who lost out when steel group ASW went bust in 2003, said: "The money we contributed has, by law, been stolen. This has been caused by governments of all parties. Nobody warned us of the risk we were taking; in fact, they encouraged us to join schemes."
However, the Government has resisted calls for compensation. The Pensions Bill, which is expected to receive its third reading next month, introduces legislation for a protection fund but it will not be retrospective.
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