§ Mr. WyattTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to pay funds into the pension schemes of the ASW workers at Sheerness and Cardiff. [85262]
§ Mr. McCartney[holding answer 12 December 2002]. Ministers have met members of the ASW Action Group and their constituency MPs to discuss the Group's concerns about the Cardiff and Sheerness pension schemes. We identified a number of practical ways forward and have written to the hon. Member on a number of detailed technical pension issues on the process of winding up, and has raised the concerns of the Group as appropriate within Government.
It was also suggested that the scheme's independent trustee might like to contact the Inland Revenue to discuss the option of members being re-introduced into the State Second Pension (formerly SERPS). It may be possible, under the 'deemed buyback' provisions contained in the Pensions Act 1995, for members to have their state scheme rights restored, thus ensuring that they receive an additional pension under the state scheme, in addition to basic state pension.
The Government recognises that the ASW situation is extremely unfortunate, and that is why it acted quickly to put in place a range of measures through Jobcentre Plus, in conjunction with key partner organisations to help those employees being made redundant. No responsible Government could agree to be the guarantor of private pension savings. It would place huge liabiliites on tax payers some of whom will not have private savings of their own.
The Government is concerned about schemes that wind up with insufficient assets to cover their liabilities. That is why it has set out proposals aimed at improving protection for scheme members in the pensions Green Paper 'Simplicity, security and choice: Working and saving for retirement', Cm 5677. The Green Paper includes proposals to share out scheme assets more fairly, introduce some form of insurance and strengthen protection for members whose solvent employer chooses to wind up its scheme