Maxwell Pensioners (Hansard, 28 February 1994)

§ 1. Mr. Dickens
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps the Government have taken to help Maxwell pensioners.

§ The Secretary of State for Social Security (Mr. Peter Lilley)
We have succeeded in ensuring that all Maxwell pensioners have continued to receive their pensions in full while asset recovery work has progressed.

§ Mr. Dickens
Will my right hon. Friend congratulate the liquidators and the Mirror Group trustees for recovering £84 million-worth of assets? That is a marvellous help to all the people in their later years who could do without worry, stress and tension. It is a magnificent example of the way in which the Government have worked closely with those two parties to ensure that—as was said in an earlier statement, not what the Minister has just told the House—all existing Maxwell pensioners should now receive their total benefit. That is marvellous.

§ Madam Speaker
Order. This is Question Time, not statement time.

§ Mr. Lilley
I entirely endorse the point that my hon. Friend made and will certainly convey his congratulations. We are fully behind Sir Peter Webster, who is working on behalf of the Maxwell pensioners' trust to seek a global settlement of all outstanding issues. That will be very much in the interests of pensioners and we hope that he will succeed.

§ Mr. Ingram
On 7 June last year, the Under-Secretary of State, in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Gunnell), told the House: 634 The long-term gap between the Maxwell pension scheme's assets and liabilities"—[Official Report, 7 June 1993; Vol. 226, c. 9.]

§ Madam Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman perhaps did not hear the statement that I made last Thursday. I do not want statements at the Dispatch Box or from the Back Benches. It is Question Time and, therefore, I am seeking brisk questions and brisk answers.

§ Mr. Ingram
I apologise. Does the Secretary of State agree that last June it was calculated that the gap between assets and liabilities would be less than £100 million? In the light of recent out-of-court statements to the Maxwell pensioners' trust fund, is the Secretary of State now standing by that assessment or has it been readjusted? In the light of the answer that he gave the hon. Member for Littleborough and Saddleworth (Mr. Dickens) is he now saying that all the thousands of Maxwell pensioners will receive their pensions in full as a result of the recent settlements?

§ Mr. Lilley
I understand the important point that the hon. Member makes. Of course a lot of work remains to be done, especially if a global settlement is to be achieved, or even more if it is not achieved. I understand that the scheme trustees are cautiously optimistic—that can be no more than an assessment on their part—that there is a reasonable chance that all their long-term obligations will ultimately be met if the present progress continues.