How to interest an MP in pensions

How to interest an MP in pensions

Former social security minister Frank Field aims to force the government to wake up to the pensions crisis - by introducing a parliamentary bill abolishing MPs' own pensions.

When he was a minister, Mr Field was famously asked by Tony Blair to "think the unthinkable" on pensions, though this is probably not what the prime minister had in mind. Mr Field was not joking yesterday when he spoke of his plan to introduce a bill calling for the winding-up of MPs' and ministers' pensions.

He knows it will be swiftly voted down but is using the tactic to highlight the plight of the growing numbers of workers angry at the loss of nearly all their promised pension after their companies have gone bust. "If we don't want to be treated like that, our constituents shouldn't be treated like that [either]," Mr Field said.

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He floated his idea at a "pensions summit" at which MPs and campaigners urged the government to pay compensation to workers who have seen their company pension entitlements snatched away because of rules that, ironically, were brought in to protect people in the wake of the Maxwell scandal.

The summit came 24 hours after two trade unions, Amicus and steelworkers' union ISTC, launched legal action against the government over what they claim was its "failure to protect workers' pensions".

The are representing employees of steel company ASW - the most notable example of a firm that has gone bust, jeopardising the pensions of workers.

Ministers recently announced plans for a pensions protection fund to provide a safety net for workers hit in this way. But the new rules will not be applied retrospectively, so they will not help those who have already lost out.

Campaigners at yesterday's summit said an estimated 40,000 people had lost some or all of their pensions since 1997.

Mr Field has introduced another private member's bill which proposes launching a "lifeboat operation" for those who have already lost out, possibly funded by using some of the billions of pounds of forgotten or lost money in dormant bank accounts.

He warned: "I fear we may well see in the next few years some major closures of mega schemes."

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