Those who lost their company pensions in the final salary scheme collapses of the past decade will be gathering in Whitehall this week, in yet another bid to shame the Government into giving them the compensation they rightfully deserve.
The near-instant bail out of the Northern Rock savers has only compounded the 125,000 pension victims’ sense of injustice. If the Northern Rock investors can be indemnified 100 per cent by the Government on their savings, why not those who have lost their pensions through no fault of their own?
As Ros Altmann, the pensions expert, says: “Nobody in Government recommended that people save in Northern Rock, but they have been bailed out in full, whereas the pensions victims, who were encouraged to save via company pensions by various Government bodies, are being short changed.
With only £20m required to give the pensioners the same compensation as those in the Pension Protection Fund, it is difficult to see what ministers are quibbling about.
The pensioners have certainly got their timing right. Their vigil outside Downing Street on the night of 20 November coincides with the Government’s push to gain cross-party consensus on personal accounts – the national pension scheme due to come into force in 2012.
Even if cross-party consensus is achieved on personal accounts, this will not necessarily make the new pension system a roaring success. For that we need far greater consumer confidence in pensions. Perhaps Gordon Brown and Alistiar Darling would like to start by righting this long-running wrong.
Comments
Trackbacks