Pensions Reform

I have been listening to the debate for the past four and a half hours and have thoroughly enjoyed the cross-party discussions on this important issue. We have heard a lot about consensus. No matter what consensus we may reach in this place, among the major political parties or out there in the country, I fear that, unless there is trust in our pension schemes, all that hard work may go to waste. The White Paper will not be worth the paper it is written on if the public do not believe in the pension schemes that result. Indeed, they have every reason not to believe or trust in pension schemes, given what has gone on over recent years. About four years ago, when I was a parliamentary candidate, the former Dexion workers in my constituency asked for my support in their campaign for natural justice in respect of the pensions that had been stolen from them. I sat with them for three days and went through the detailed documentation they had provided through their trustees about actions in which they felt the Government had been involved. Long before the ombudsman’s report, I came to the conclusion that they had been treated very badly. The number of people who have lost their pension has gone up dramatically since then. The early figure was between 70,000 and 80,000; now the number is 125,000 plus—I am sure that the Minister will take me to task if I am wrong. Seven hundred of those people are my constituents, but the loss of their pension does not affect only them; it hits their extended families and their loved ones, especially their widows who, in some cases, have suffered so much. In addition, the situation has massively affected people’s confidence about investing in a pension scheme. We are asking the public to trust Governments and pension companies with their future—with their retirement income. So much of what has been said today shows that they will not have that faith in the future. I freely admit that there was a problem with pension mis-selling, which had to be addressed. Things went wrong and that had a major effect on people’s confidence, but there has been an even bigger effect over the last few months when an independent parliamentary ombudsman, appointed by the House, came up with a damning report on the Government’s involvement in the collapse of pension schemes. That has had a massive knock-on effect. Ordinary decent people who changed their standard of living so that they could put something away for their pension have lost so much. It is difficult to see how we can involve the public in this great consensus debate about trusting the Government—no matter who is in power—if we do not address the problems faced by those thousands of decent, honest people who put something away for a rainy day and for their retirement. I stood on a manifesto that said that those people should receive the minimum funding requirement— 80 per cent. of their pension—from unclaimed assets. Halfway through the run-up to the election, the Government came up not with a clear compensation scheme but with the financial assistance scheme. It comes from taxpayers—from public funds—which is good and it can be added to the estimated £15 billion that is sitting around in unclaimed assets. The Chancellor wants to use some of that money for worthy causes and I cannot think of a worthier cause than repairing the damage to people’s pensions and restoring their faith. The knock-on effects will also be felt if something similar happens in the future. In the 13 months that I have had the honour to be a Member, I have been asked several times whether I would take up with the parliamentary ombudsman something that my constituents felt was fundamentally wrong. In some cases my answer would be yes and in others no, but even if I did pursue a case, the Government might simply ignore the ombudsman’s ruling. My constituents’ faith in Parliament has been massively affected by the pensions problem. The future role of the ombudsman is at risk, if when that person comes up with a report, whether it is for or against the Government or impartial, it is completely ignored. The ombudsman’s report was damning. My constituents, like those of other Members who have spoken today, felt rightly that their pensions had been stolen from them. Some Members have said that we should look more closely at individual cases, and the Minister should consider that proposal seriously. Instead of wrapping everything up in one bundle and saying that all the blame lies with the Government or with the companies, we should look at individual cases. If the Government’s approach to an individual scheme was fundamentally flawed, they would have to say so. The ombudsman found in general terms that there was maladministration in the way that Government had dealt with pension schemes.