ASW pensioners being let down by Government.
Gordon Henderson has expressed disappointment that the Government has refused to increase the amount it is making available to former employees of ASW Sheerness, whose occupational pension scheme is in administration.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alan Johnson MP, made it clear this week that the only money the Government is committed to providing is the £400 million, spread over 20 years, that has already been announced.
Gordon said:
‘It is widely acknowledged that £20 million per year is nowhere near enough to provide ASW workers with the size of pension that they were promised. The problem is that ASW pensioners are not alone. Tens of thousands of other workers paid into a company pension which they were told was safe, only to lose their savings when the company became insolvent. They will all expect a share from the same pot.
‘The Government set up this fund in a blaze of publicity in an attempt to make us believe it was actually doing something about the pensions’ crisis, but now it is refusing to put sufficient resources into the fund to make it work.
‘A future Conservative Government would use unclaimed assets in dormant bank and building society accounts, which Gordon Brown has targeted for as yet unspecified charitable purposes, to help rebuild the pension funds of wind-up victims.
‘Pensioners have been let down by the Government. Their promise to help pensioners has been shown to be all talk. Private pension schemes have been taxed to the hilt by a £5 billion a year tax and more and more pensioners are being forced to fill out insulting means testing forms.
‘Hard working men and women want to look forward to retirement at a reasonable age, not be told that they will have to work until they are 70 years old in order to secure a decent pension. And when they do eventually give up work, they deserve some dignity in retirement. Restoring the link between pensions and earnings is one way of giving them a better deal.’
…ends…
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