Hopes rise on lost pensions (From Witney Gazette)

Hopes rise on lost pensions

1:56pm Monday 26th February 2007 in Witney By Amanda Williams

FORMER staff from the Early's blanket factory, who were left without a pension when the company collapsed, have welcomed a landmark legal victory by campaigners in the High Court.

In test cases, affecting about 75,000 people, a judge quashed the Government's decision to reject Parliamentary ombudsman Ann Abraham's ruling that it was guilty of malad- ministration.

Now ministers are under pressure to act, although ex-Early's employee John Brooks remains sceptical over whether he will receive a pay-out.

He said: "The good news is that every group of pensioners can put their case forward, and it will effectively be rubber-stamped by the courts.

"But the problem is that the Government will not admit it is wrong."

Mr Brooks, 67, of Westfield Road, Witney, lost his job after Early's shut down in 2002, and received no pension, despite paying into a scheme for 38 years.

He was due to pick up £120 a week had the pension operated.

Scores of other former workers have been affected.

Since then, he has been working part-time at Ladbroke's betting shop, in Witney, but will be forced to retire completely this year, as he is suffering from leukaemia.

He added: "Obviously, I would love to see some part of my pension.

"It is disgusting that these politicians are sitting on gold-plated pensions, and we have received nothing."

Mr Justice Bean, sitting at London's High Court, said the ombudsman had been right to rule there was maladministration with pensioners fed misleading official information in leaflets about the safety of pension schemes between 1995 and 2005.

It was 'no answer' for the Government to say pensioners knew there were risks, and that there was 'no certainty in life'.

The judge directed the Government to think again over its rejection of the ombudsman's call for consideration to be given to restoring 'core pension and non-core pension benefits' to pensioners who had lost all of part of their pensions.

Witney MP and Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, has campaigned for the Early's pensioners for years.

He raised the question again at the House of Commons.

Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said that the exact terms of the judgment were still being studied.

But any package put forward by the Government had to remain 'affordable'.

The cost of meeting the ombudsman's March 2006 recommendations for compensation has been put, in the House of Commons, at £15bn.

But the applicants say the true figure is £3.7bn at most, to be spread over 60 years, with a peak cost, in net present value terms, of £100m per annum.

Work and Pensions Secretary, John Hutton, added: "It's simply not true to say that we have acted callously or indifferently."