Plaid Cymru to table Commons motion over longstanding pension injustice

Martin Shipton

Plaid Cymru will table an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons aimed at finally securing justice for campaigning steelworkers who were robbed of their pensions when their employer went bust.

The workers lost out when their employer, Cardiff steel firm ASW, went bust in 2002 – and have continued to lose out ever since.

When ASW ceased trading in 2002, workers initially believed their full pension entitlements would be honoured.

But that turned out not to be the case, and nearly a quarter of a century later they are still campaigning for all their pensions to be fully indexed to inflation – a concession that successive governments have not been prepared to make.

In the latest blow to their cause, they received a letter from Secretary of State for Wales Stephen Kinnock in which he stated: “I recognise the strength of feeling among former ASW workers and understand why many members continue to feel deeply aggrieved about the losses they experienced following the failure of their pension scheme.

“I am also conscious that this has been a long-running issue and that many former members have campaigned for many years to secure what they regard as a fair outcome.”

Mr Kinnock said the Pension Schemes Act 2026 would introduce inflation-linked increases on pension rights accrued before April 6 1997 where the original scheme rules provided for them.

The new arrangements are expected to come into force in time for the first increases to be paid from January 2027. They will be linked to CPI, subject to an annual cap of 2.5%, and will apply to future payments.

He said the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) had not been designed to restore all lost scheme benefits, but that the reforms would provide additional support to affected members while balancing the Government’s responsibilities to taxpayers and the public finances.

John Benson, one of the leading ASW pension campaigners, responded to Mr Kinnock, describing the content of his letter as “a load of horse dung”.

In a letter to the Welsh Secretary, he stated: “We were encouraged to save into a company pension scheme by ministers in successive UK Governments, were told these pensions were safe and fully protected by law no matter what difficulties our employer faced.

“An extra 2.5% pre-1997 indexation starting in January 2027 means on average that a former ASW steelworker will receive a massive increase of about £3 a week.

“Innocent victims who played by the rules, and have had thousands, tens of thousands and in many cases hundreds of thousands of pounds cruelly stolen from them. Just 2.5% CPI starting January 2027 is a bloody insult.”

Early Day Motion

Now Ann Davies, the Plaid Cymru MP for Caerfyrddin, will table an EDM as soon as the Westminster Parliament reconvenes.

The motion acknowledges the 24-year campaign by former ASW workers John Benson and Phil Jones, who lost their livelihoods and pensions following the collapse of the company.

It notes that the FAS and Pension Protection Fund (PPF) subsequently provided some relief, but that pension contributions made before April 1997 were not protected against inflation.

The motion welcomes the UK Government’s decision to introduce pre-1997 indexation for FAS and PPF members whose original schemes provided for it, with compensation payments on pensions built up before April 6 1997 linked to CPI and capped at 2.5%.

However, it argues that the changes do not go far enough and calls on ministers to extend indexation of compensation under both schemes to cover pre-1997 and post-1997 service.

It also calls for affected members to be retrospectively reimbursed in full for the annual increases they should have received, linked to the RPI measure of inflation without a cap.

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