Tireless pensions campaigner vows to continue the fight, despite turning 80

Martin Shipton

One of Wales’ most tireless campaigners for justice will celebrate his 80th birthday on June 23, determined to carry on until final victory is achieved.

John Benson has been the most high profile advocate for pension justice since ASW. the Cardiff steel company he worked for, crashed in 2002.

Despite promises made that the workers’ pensions would be secure, the reality turned out to be greatly different.

Benson left school aged 15 in 1961 and got a job with steel firm GKN. In 1982, some years after GKN was taken over by ASW, the ASW pension scheme was formed.

Recalling what the workforce was told at the time, he said: “My father, who until he retired after 46 years, was also a branch secretary for the ISTC, later Community Union. He told us he had held talks with the directors and told everyone that they should join the ASW pension scheme as it would secure a comfortable retirement for themselves and their families. Everyone, to my knowledge, agreed this was the right thing to do.

“But in July 2002, we were told by one of the receivers that the company was to close and we would be losing our jobs. One of my work colleagues had tears rolling down his face. He told me he had just taken out a big mortgage, and was worried he was going to have to sell his house. The receiver, though, told us the pensions we had saved and worked for were safe, as they were not touching those funds. I went home after my shift had finished and told my wife I had lost my job, but the pension was safe, only to find out days later there was a shortfall and we could lose in the region of 85% of the pension.

“It put me on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and at one point I thought I could go over the edge. After all those years working in heavy industry, with noise from electric arc furnaces, dust fumes and unsociable hours, I had nothing to look forward to. I tried to get other work, applying for up to 20 jobs. I only received one interview but didn’t get the job.

“I was 56 so my age was against me. But after months of trying, I finally got a job at M&S in Cardiff at £4.63 an hour for 20 hours a week, just for the Christmas period. Then on December 28 I was out of work again. After months of trying, I got a job at Cardiff Airport for the summer season, lifting 20 kilo bags or more off conveyor belts to get by.

“October came and I was out of a job again, struggling to make ends meet. The following year, again, after being out of work for months, I got a job with an agency working for Cardiff City Council, picking up litter and changing rubbish bins in Cardiff parks. From being in charge of a large group of men and having to make big decisions in the steelworks regarding hundreds of tons of molten steel. I was baggage handling and picking up litter. But I met some fantastic people doing those jobs and had no regrets about taking them. I must admit, even though some winters I was being laid off and out of work from October till April, I kept my sanity in my head just above water.

“I should have retired at 65, but had to work till I was 67, as 41 years in heavy industry was taking its toll on my body.

“After we lost our jobs and pensions, Phil Jones and myself decided to fight this terrible, inhumane injustice, organising protests all over the UK, London, Cardiff and party conferences. We held a banner at the entrance to the European Courts in Luxembourg. When the trade unions took our case to them asking the government to end the ASW pension scandal, Phil and myself were funded for the two days by our former work colleagues.

“I was also asked to hand a petition into the European Parliament in Brussels in 2005, organised by Plaid Cymru, and I spoke to a lot of senior figures while there. Over many years, Phil, myself and other members of the Pensions Action Group, have had countless meetings with ministers, MPs in London and Cardiff and at constituency offices, trying to highlight how badly we’ve been treated by successive UK governments. “In December 2007, a number of us were asked to attend a meeting at the House of Commons with the then Pensions Minister, Mike O’Brien, and we were told that we would receive 90% of our pensions.

“I left the meeting and phoned my wife and told her that all those past five years of relentless campaigning had paid off, and we were to receive 90% of our promised pensions. But we would continue to our fight for the 100% that we had paid for and were promised, only to find out some days later that the 90% was a mythical figure, and over time our pensions would be eroding year on year, as it did not include our scheme’s full pre and post 1997 indexation. To put it bluntly, we had been stitched up, so our campaign had to continue for what was rightfully ours.

“Having your promised pension cruelly stolen from you for just doing the right thing is soul destroying. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and thought I could go over the top. I thought I would have to sell my house. At one point I thought I could lose my marriage. Fighting this campaign took over my life. How could politicians who we put our trust in treat workers with so much unfairness and contempt? Luckily, my wife has stuck by me all this time.

“My fantastic father told me if you believe you are right, never give up. If you are proved wrong, say sorry. I will never say sorry, we have been stitched up, fed to the wolves and brutally betrayed by those we put our trust in – Ministers in Westminster.

“As recently as 2022 the late Jack Dromey told me that Labour’s front bench were going to do all that was possible to get our pensions restored, I believed Jack was sincere and 100% behind us. In came Rachael Reeves, who reneged on that promise. She is a disgrace to the high office she holds and like Starmer should resign.

“As for Torsten Bell, the current Pensions Minister, we met him and told him some horrific stories about how it had affected former workers at ASW and their families. Even though he told us what happened to us wasn’t right, he never stopped laughing, I was just about to walk out, when the meeting was closed.

‘Insulting’

“In all those 24 years campaigning for not only the workforce at ASW Cardiff, but also for innocent victims working elsewhere, I have never met a Minister, MP, peer, Assembly or Senedd Member, so arrogant and insulting, as Torsten Bell. He used every dirty trick in the book to deny us the pensions we paid for, insulting us once again with that 2.5% pre 1997 CPI indexation starting in January 2027.

“My family have been great, but it has taken its toll on them, my wife especially. My youngest granddaughter handed a letter into 10 Downing Street when she was seven years old. She is now 28. The letter told the Prime Minister that her grandfather was never happy, and was making her sad – those were her own words. I actually didn’t see much of my family because I was fighting this appalling pension miscarriage of justice.

“I’m not too sure about Andy Burnham, but we’re not giving up. It was our money and we deserve to be compensated in full.”