Pensioners win legal battle over pensions

Four pensioners who lost all or part of their pensions when their companies collapsed have won their High Court case against the government.

Henry Bradley, 63, from Belfast, Bob Duncan, 64, from Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, Andrew Parr, 61, from Sheerness in Kent and Tom Waugh, 67, from Tamworth in Staffordshire launched the action in order to force the government to accept the ruling of a report into collapsed pension schemes by the Parliamentary Ombudsman Ann Abraham.

The report, published last March, accused the government of being guilty of maladministration, saying that it had misled the public over the safety of occupational pension schemes.

The High Court ruled that the government had been wrong to reject the report.

The case will affect around 85,000 people who lost their pensions when the firms they worked for collapsed between 1997 and 2005.

However, the decision does not mean that the government will have to compensate those people for the loss of their pensions, although it will put pressure on the government over the issue.

The government has said that the cost of paying compensation to all those affected could amount to £15 billion over the next 60 years. However, campaigners for those who lost their pensions have suggested that the figure is much lower, around £3.7 billion at most over the next 60 years.

Commenting on the case, Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson David Laws said: "This is the third strike against the government's disgraceful attempts to duck out of paying compensation , after the Ombudsman Report and the Public Adminstration Select Committee Report. After three strikes, the government must surely accept that it is out.

"Ministers must now set out how fair compensation will be paid to those who lost their pensions after government maladministration.

"If the government refuses to act after this decision we will table an amendment to the Pensions Bill forcing them to act."

(KMcA/EF)