Forum Brief: Pensions Bill

Opposition parties urged ministers on Tuesday to do more to assist the tens of thousands of workers whose pension funds have collapsed.

Party Response: Liberal Democrats

Steve Webb MP said: "The government’s proposed Pension Protection Fund will offer nothing to the tens of thousands of workers who have already been robbed of their promised company pensions. The scheme will only offer protection for occupational pension schemes that collapse after its introduction in 2005.

"The government are betraying a generation who worked hard and saved hard. They have a moral duty to compensate them. The government must introduce an affordable, time-limited package to help the innocent workers who have been stripped of their pensions.

"The Pension Protection Fund is shrouded in uncertainty. Companies that still choose to provide final salary schemes need to know what the premiums will be from day one and exactly when a risk based element will be built in.

"Final salary schemes are already closing in droves. Unless the government can put flesh on the bones of the Pension Protection Fund they will hammer another nail into the final salary scheme coffin."

Forum Response: Institute of Directors

Derek Brownlee, pensions executive at the Institute of Directors, said: "It's probably right that the Pensions Protection Fund itself isn't retrospective, since that would mean companies paying the PPF levy would pay even more. However many of the people who have lost their pensions, and who will not get compensation under current plans, were never told that their pension was in any way at risk. They were also doing the responsible thing - saving for their retirement.

"If some form of compensation isn't provided, it will public undermine confidence in the pensions system. The first step should be to quantify the problem, and identify a realistic cost of providing some form of pension to those affected workers, before looking at the various funding options."

Forum Response: National Consumers Council

Ed Mayo, NCC chief executive, said: "Of course it’s important that company schemes become more flexible and that peoples’ pension entitlements are protected. But company schemes – no matter how well they are run – are just one small piece in the big and complex pensions jigsaw.