Pensions Reform

With great respect to hon. Members on both sides of the House, I intend to make a little progress with my speech and then give way later. I know that there is a lot of interest in the issue of the financial assistance scheme, and I am sure that my hon. Friend the Minister for Pensions Reform will deal with some of the points that arise when he winds up. I want to turn briefly to the recent report of the parliamentary commissioner on pensions. While I have repeatedly made clear that we disagree with the ombudsman’s finding of maladministration by my Department, and have therefore not been able to accept her recommendations calling for compensation along the lines that she proposed, we obviously have the greatest sympathy with those who have lost some or all of their pensions. I have met people who have been affected and am acutely aware of the difficulties that they undoubtedly face. They believe that they have been robbed of their pensions, and I entirely understand that feeling of injustice. At the time of the ombudsman’s report, we had already committed ourselves to a review of the financial assistance scheme. In March, the Prime Minister announced that we had expedited the review, and last month I announced that we had decided to extend the scheme to cover eligible people who were within 15 years of their scheme’s normal retirement age on 14 May 2004.