Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the financial assistance scheme for pensioners affected by occupational pension scheme looses.

The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), which is administered by the Pensions Protection Fund (PPF) on behalf of DWP, was set up in 2005 with assistance payments backdated to May 2004 when the policy of the FAS was announced. Prior to the establishment of the FAS, employees received vastly reduced benefits from pension schemes in difficulty and sometimes nothing at all, irrespective of the contributions they had made.

£400 million of public funding over 20 years was initially committed to the FAS which helped an estimated 15,000 people. The support available to members of FAS has subsequently been extended over the years and, as a consequence, the level of Government funding of the scheme has increased significantly bringing the Government’s total long-term cash expenditure on the scheme to £8.6 billion.

The FAS closed to notification and qualification of new schemes on 1 September 2016 but will continue to support its 150,000 members who will continue to receive a meaningful income for the rest of their lives.

The Government remains committed to the principle of providing protection for members of pension schemes in the event of employer insolvency via the PPF.