{"id":131817,"date":"2025-09-09T18:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T18:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/131817\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T18:16:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T18:16:15","slug":"plaid-cymru-moves-commons-amendments-aimed-at-fully-compensating-pensioners-whose-employers-went-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/131817\/","title":{"rendered":"Plaid Cymru moves Commons amendments aimed at fully compensating pensioners whose employers went bust"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ann Davies, MP for Caerfyrddin.<\/p>\n

Martin Shipton<\/p>\n

Plaid Cymru has tabled amendments to a Bill going through the House of Commons that would at last provide full compensation to retired workers who lost their pensions when the companies that employed them went bust.<\/p>\n

Former employees of Allied Steel and Wire (ASW) in Cardiff have been campaigning for justice since the firm was put into liquidation 23 years ago.<\/p>\n

Now Ann Davies, the Plaid MP for Caerfyrddin, has tabled three amendments to the Pension Schemes Bill that would greatly improve the lot of those who lost out.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Security<\/p>\n

Ms Davies, her party\u2019s spokesperson on benefit and pension issues, said: \u201cWhen the company went bankrupt in 2002, former ASW employees lost both their livelihoods and their pensions which they had worked hard for and relied upon for security later in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the UK Government\u2019s introduction of the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) to provide some relief, contributions made by workers to their pensions before April 1997 have not been fully inflation proof. This has left many ASW pensioners out of pocket and unable to realise the secure retirement they were promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cASW workers are not the only employees who have been short changed by previous governments. The British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) Scandal continues to affect the lives of former coal miners whose funds are being withheld, causing immense hardship for pensioners who paid into the system for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pension Schemes Bill currently going through the House of Commons provides the UK Government with the opportunity to put things right. That is why I have tabled three amendments: to extend the indexation of compensation under the FAS and PPF to cover both pre-1997 and post-1997 service, reimbursing members for the annual increases they should rightly have received; and the transfer of the BCSSS investment reserve to members.<\/p>\n

\u201cASW workers and British Coal staff have experienced true miscarriages of justice. Loyal and hardworking employees should not be forced to endure financial uncertainty due to no fault of their own. This is a real opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and I urge my colleagues across the House to support my amendments to the Bill to ensure that these pensioners receive the justice they rightly deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Miscarriage of justice\u2019<\/p>\n

Former ASW worker John Benson, who has been involved in the campaign for justice since the firm crashed, said: \u201cI asked Plaid Cymru to table an amendment to the Second Reading of the Pension Schemes Bill, regarding our miscarriage of justice, especially the lack of pre-1997 indexation,<\/p>\n

\u201cAnn Davies has done the former workforce at ASW Cardiff and others proud and we cannot thank her and Plaid Cymru enough, Ann has tabled three amendments, and we hope Clause 19 will be selected by the Commons Committee scrutinising the Bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you are aware, in a short debate at the Senedd 2024 which [Independent MS] Rhys ab Owen succeeded in getting, [Plaid Cymru MS] Adam Price told Senedd Members that if it was not for the steelworkers at ASW Cardiff there would not have not been an FAS, but neither would there have been a PPF. Plus there was another debate recently that [Plaid Cymru MS] Heledd Fychan obtained, which covered a wider range of issues on pensions and in which ASW Cardiff was mentioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like all the MPs on the Committee to fully support the excellent amendments that Ann is proposing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need closure, as most of the members who are in the FAS are in God\u2019s waiting room, and deserve the pensions we paid for in full, with them fully backdated sooner rather than later, as time is not on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n the people of Wales.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ann Davies, MP for Caerfyrddin. Martin Shipton Plaid Cymru has tabled amendments to a Bill going through the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":["post-131817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}