Fresh hope for pension victims

Jun 4 2007 By Jon Griffin, Birmingham Mail

AROUND 2,000 West Midlanders facing pensions heartache are set to win crucial support from the House of Lords in their five-year fight for compensation.

The Government faces an embarrassing defeat in the Lords tomorrow when the Pensions Bill is debated by peers, raising new hope for former workers at Kalamazoo, Birmingham Mint and UEF.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers are set for a Parliamentary show of force in the upper house to persuade ministers to speed up payments to a total of 125,000 victims of pensions theft across the UK.

The Lords debate follow's April's vote in the Commons, which saw Tory plans to bail out the affected workers thrown out by a narrow majority of just 22.

But support in the Lords for the pensioners will increase political pressure on the Government to cave in and compensate the victims, who stand to lose tens of thousands of pounds.

Shadow pensions secretary Philip Hammond said: "Their Lordships will carry these measures on Wednesday, and will do so again and again if necessary. The suffering of these pension theft victims goes way beyond party politics."

He accused Chancellor Gordon Brown of creating a "pensions apartheid."

Lord Oakeshott, Liberal Democrat pensions spokesman, said: "We are shoulder to shoulder. There is huge cross-party contempt for this useless compensation scheme."

Workers at Midland firms, including Kalamazoo, Birmingham Mint and UEF, have been battling for five years after seeing their pension funds wiped out when their companies collapsed.

The workers won a famous High Court victory in February but now face another courtroom battle later this year following the Government's decision to take the fight to the Court of Appeal.