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Government damned over role in pensions fiasco
12 February 2008 12:00
The Appeal Court has upheld the verdict that the government shares a portion of the blame for the collapse of numerous company pension schemes over the past decade.
Two years ago, the parliamentary ombudsman Ann Abraham published a report accusing the government of having misled the 125,000 members of schemes that went bust between 1997 and 2005 over the level of protection that the state would offer them.
Her opinion was subsequently maintained by a High Court ruling and after the government's protested the initial ruling, has now been maintained by the Appeal Court, which described the government's decision to appeal as 'irrational'.
Yet the Department for Work and Pensions has stated that it may take its case to the House of Lords, while claiming that the Appeal Court had supported its own view that government misadministration was not primarily responsible for the schemes collapsing.
However, independent policy adviser Dr Ros Altman branded the government's refusal to accept responsibility for the affair an 'affront' to democracy and urged it to speed up the delivery of payments to the pensions victims under the Financial Assistance Scheme.
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