Former ASW workers’ 24 year pensions campaign

That this House acknowledges the sacrifice of former Allied Steel and Wire (ASW) workers John Benson and Phil Jones, who have campaigned relentlessly over 24 years to receive deserved justice in retirement; notes that when ASW went bust in 2002, workers including John and Phil lost their livelihoods and their pensions; further notes that the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) provided some relief, but pension contributions made before April 1997 were not inflation-proofed; welcomes the UK Government’s action to finally start addressing this injustice by introducing pre-1997 indexation for FAS and PPF members whose original schemes provided for it, with compensation payments on pensions built up before 6 April 1997 to be CPI-linked at a cap of 2.5%, and applied prospectively; and urges the UK Government to recognise John and Phil’s long campaign and right these wrongs by extending the indexation of compensation under the FAS and PPF to cover both pre-1997 and post-1997 service, and retrospectively reimbursing members in full for the annual increases they should have received, linked to the RPI measure of inflation without cap.