![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/unnamed-65.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n\u2018Fair\u2019<\/p>\n
John Benson, one of the leading steel pension campaigners who himself worked for ASW, said: \u201cThe amendments tabled by Ann Davies were fair and affordable, and were also supported by members of the Scrutiny Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly this Labour Pensions Minister made ridiculous statements as to why he rejected these amendments. So much for what sees itself as the only party in Westminster that believes in social justice, even telling us in February, at a meeting at the Treasury secured by Rhys ab Owen MS, that what happened to us wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t right, why hasn\u2019t he fixed it and stopped the niticking, I know I have said it countless times, but the late and well respected [former Labour shadow minister] Jack Dromey told me personally shortly before he sadly passed away that Labour\u2019s front bench were going to do all that was possible to get our pensions restored,<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Keir Starmer had a reshuffle, Jack was moved to another department and suddenly there was a solid brick wall of silence from Labour ministers. It was disgraceful.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Former Conservative Pensions Minister] Paul Maynard who we also met at the DWP, agreed with us that Gordon Brown\u2019s unfair tax grab on occupational pensions from 1997 till 2010, \u00a3238 billion in total, failed to put in safeguards after the Maxwell Pension Scandal, as well as other successive UK governments\u2019 monumental failures, were all major factors in why we were not receiving the pensions we paid for. He said he would do all he could to help: he was true to his word, and kept in touch with me personally giving me updates, but no cast iron promises, yet working to secure a deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe then contacted me after the election on July 4 2024 to say there was a deal on the table \u2013 not perfect \u2013 but a deal had been agreed with the DWP and Treasury, Rishi Sunak then called the election, in came Labour, and that deal was dead in the water. It\u2019s disgraceful and shameful.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we have seen since the election, and I will say it how I feel, Labour attained power with monumental lies and dishonesty, and this Pensions Minister is making excuses, and time wasting, not to pay us what we paid for, to his and this Labour government\u2019s shame \u2013 playing politics with people\u2019s lives and retirement dreams. Of those who are still alive, the majority of us are in our 60s, 70s and 80s, and time is not on our side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a meeting with the Pensions Minister. If there is not a measure accepted like Ann\u2019s in the Pensions Bill, how many years will it take for any other bill to go through Parliament \u2013 possibly many years<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need closure, but we also need the pensions we paid for \u2013 and to have them backdated.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n the people of Wales.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pensions Minister Torsten Bell. Photo Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire Martin Shipton Pensions Minister and Swansea West MP Torsten Bell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-144231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/01K0P60ZTMPYFH8JQ80XATVX0M.jpg\")
Pensions Minister Torsten Bell. Photo Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757847069_487_unnamed-66.jpg\"\/)
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