For immediate release
16 June 2006
Julie Morgan, MP for Cardiff North, continues to raise the plight of former Allied Steel and Wire workers in the House of Commons.
During Thursday's debate on the Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill, which will establish an independent representative for older people in Wales, Julie asked the Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain, whether he would continue to stand up for those pensioners who lost their pensions when the company collapsed in 2002.
Julie said: "On the ASw case, in welcoming the huge increase that has gone into the financial assistance scheme, which will increase the number of ASW pensioners who will benefit, will my right hon. Friend also accept that some of my constituents, because they started their working lives young and do not fall within the 15 years before retirement criterion, will not benefit at all? Will he do all he can to extend the provision to those people?"
The Secretary of State said "I agree that ASW workers were treated scandalously," and pointed out that a five-fold increase in funding for the Financial Assistance Scheme, set up in 2004 to protect workers from just such a loss of money, would help more former ASW workers.
Julie will continue to pursue the matter on Tuesday 20 June, when she leads a Westminster Hall debate on the Financial Assistance Scheme. The Minister for Pensions Reform, James Purnell MP, will be responding for the Government.
Speaking from Cardiff North today, Julie said: "The Secretary of State was entirely right to call the situation faced by former ASW workers a scandal.
"On Tuesday I will be raising the issue of the Ombudsman's report and her recommendation that the Government restore the pensions of those ASW workers affected. The Financial Assistance Scheme is a welcome protection for people who might find themselves affected in a similar way in the future, but it is currently insufficient to help ASW pensioners. Only a small number of these in my constituency have been helped by the FAS.
"I will be calling on the Government to provide greater funding for the Scheme and I hope that we can move forward to justice for these workers, who were so cruelly denied the pension that they were entitled to."
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