OMBUDSMAN'S REPORT ON OCCUPATIONAL PENSIONS

EDM number 1929 in 2005-06, proposed by Philip Hammond on 28/03/2006.

That this House condemns the Government's rejection of the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman's report Trusting in the Pensions Promise, which found the Government guilty of maladministration which misled thousands of people as to the security of their occupational pensions; further condemns the Government's use of an unsubstantiated figure of £15 billion as the cost of compensation to those identified by the Ombudsman's report, which is not discounted to reflect a net present value, and further wholly rejects the Minister's incorrect calculation that this is equivalent to six pence on the basic rate of income tax; is critical of the Financial Assistance Scheme as it currently exists because of its limited scope and because only 27 people who have lost pensions and are eligible for help under the scheme have so far received any payment; and calls on the Government urgently to look at whether the Financial Assistance Scheme can be reconstructed to help a wider group of people who have suffered loss of pension rights through no fault of their own and to investigate the possible use of unclaimed assets to support the Financial Assistance Scheme.

This motion has been signed by a total of 83 MPs.