Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead) (Con): Tomorrow I will be at the funeral of a constituent, David Cheshire, a good and honourable man who had done the right thing and paid into an occupational pension scheme for more than 20 years. Two weeks after the occupational pension scheme went into liquidation along with the Dexion Company that he worked for, David found out that he had prostate cancer, which was terminal. He has left a widow with no pension whatsoever. David had done the honourable thing, along with some 80,000 other workers in this country, and paid into an occupational pension, only to have it stolen. Will the Leader of the House find time for us to debate the matter and see whether the compensation package offered by the Government is suitable?
Mr. Hoon: I am certainly concerned about the particular case that the hon. Gentleman raises. Not only have the Government brought forward a comprehensive compensation package to deal with the kind of situation that he describes, but we have taken steps to look at ways in which we can ensure that existing pension schemes are properly managed and properly funded, and impose tougher and tighter regulation on those schemes in order to prevent precisely the kind of difficulties that he so eloquently describes.
To read the full debate click here. |
