Philip Hammond, shadow work and pensions secretary, hit out yesterday at the government's failure to help people who lost their life savings when company schemes went bust, says the Daily Telegraph .
Speaking ahead of a judicial review into the scandal, which begins at the High Court today, Hammond said the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) set up by the government 18 months ago has made partial payments to only 871 people out of 125,000 whose company pensions collapsed. During that period, the FAS has run up administrative costs of £7m but has paid only £3m to pensioners and is taking more than six months to process each claim, says the paper. Hammond said: "The FAS is clearly not fit for purpose. Only a tiny fraction of those who need help are receiving it. This is simply not acce...
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