Mike Penning continues to fight for Dexion pensioners to get their full pensions entitlement from the Financial Assistance Scheme.

In the House of Commons yesterday, Mike Penning tackled Minister for Pensions Reform, James Purnell over inadequate payouts to pensioners from the Financial Assistance Scheme. The scheme was set up to pay compensation to pensioners who lost money when their pension schemes went bust.

During Work and Pensions Questions, Mike asked:

“…how many of the 125,000 [beneficiaries of the scheme] are getting their full entitlement under the scheme and how many of the 700 Dexion workers whose pensions were stolen from them have received the full amount that they were promised?”

In reply James Purnell told MPs: ”There is no system to pay all 125,000 people now, because the vast majority have not reached pension age.”

Speaking afterwards an angry Mike Penning said:

“Yet again the Minister refused to answer the question. I had thought the question I asked was straightforward enough – how many beneficiaries are getting their money in full?

“The Government is turning its back on hardworking people like the Dexion pensioners. People who paid all their working lives into a pensions scheme only to receive nothing.

“The Government has accepted that they deserve compensation – and the Financial Assistance Scheme is certainly a step in the right direction. But a large number of Dexion pensioners are not being compensated in full. Quite simply, this is wrong. We have offered the Government a solution – the so-called ‘Lifeboat’ scheme – which would have found money from unclaimed assets held by pension schemes, but this was rejected.

“I will continue to hound the Government on this and give the Dexion pensioners the support in Parliament that they deserve.”

Later Mike Penning raised a Point of Order with the Speaker of the House asking how MPs can ensure that Ministers answer the questions actually put to them.

He asked:

“On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased that the Leader of the House is still here to hear the point of order. Will you give a Back Bencher advice? If we ask a Minister a question and he answers a question that we did not ask, as happened in Work and Pensions questions earlier, it is a slight to our constituents who are waiting for answers from Ministers. We desperately need answers to questions and if Ministers do not answer them, are we not wasting our time?”

Afterwards Mike said:

“It is an insult to our constituents when Ministers won’t answer questions directly, but instead either answer the question they would like to have been asked or read from a script prepared by their staff.”