Workers who lost their pensions when their firm went bust gave a cautious welcome to a second High Court victory yesterday.
The court rejected an appeal by the government against its previous ruling, stating yesterday that the Secretary of State for Works and Pensions acted irrationally and outside his powers in rejecting the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s findings in her investigation into occupational pensions.
The court case was brought by four ex-ASW steel workers – Bob Duncan from Jarrow, Andrew Parr from Kent, Henry Bradley from Belfast and Tom Waugh from Staffordshire.
Henry Bradley said: ‘It’s a big step forward. But we will have to wait and see what the government reaction is.’
Fellow plaintiff Bob Duncan said that he was ‘over the moon’ about yesterday’s judgement, but feared the government will appeal yet again.
At prime minister’s questions yesterday, Blair said: ‘We’re still studying the exact terms of this judgement.
‘As I understand it, though it found problems with some of the leaflets issued both by the previous government and this government, nonetheless it did not actually find there was a causal link between that and the losses that were suffered.’
He added: ‘We must make sure that any package that we put forward is affordable.’
Responding to the judgement, a spokesperson for the Amicus and Community trades unions said: ‘Today’s High Court ruling puts more pressure on the government, following the ruling last month by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that successive UK governments’ measures to protect occupational pensions in the event of an employer’s insolvency, prior to the establishment of the Pension Protection Fund, were “unlawful and inadequate”.
‘The terrible consequences of the failure to protect occupational pensions of those people affected were graphically illustrated in the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s Report.
‘Although the High Court did not rule that the government compensate the estimated 125,000 people – on the DWP’s own figures – affected, we are in no doubt that confidence in the UK pensions system will not be restored until they do so.
‘This whole sorry episode has been the result of political failure and if politicians wish to restore faith in the political process, they must act to end this injustice now.’
Community and Amicus issued a High Court claim on behalf of 1,000 pension scheme members of Allied Steel and Wire Ltd (ASW), from Cardiff and Sheerness, who lost the bulk of their pensions when the company was declared bankrupt in 2002, leaving two pension funds in deficit.
