Write to your constituency MP. If you don’t get an answer within a fortnight write and email again.
Ask to meet your MP face to face at their surgery.
The message is simple. When you were transferred to AEA Technology plc from UKAEA in 1996 you were repeatedly assured in writing by the Government that your pension was safe with the new company and that you could safely transfer your accruals to the new scheme. When your new employer arranged to go into pre-pack administration, the Government RENEGED on its commitment to protect your pension. If it can do this to you it can do it to anybody whatever the circumstances.
Write to the Minister at the BEIS (The Business Department) sending the letter through your MP. BEIS is the Government Department that has taken over the responsibilities of the DTI who were involved in the original privatisation in 1996. State that you were repeatedly assured in 1996 of the safety and equivalence of the new pension- in Parliament and by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) in a note given to EVEYONE transferring to the new private company. If BEIS don’t reply within three weeks keep bombarding them, keep your MP involved.
If the BEIS fob you off with a so called Factsheet, issued in June 2013, point out the half truths and inaccuracies in this. If they then produce a note from GAD dated September 1996 and a DTI memo dated February 1997, both of which throw doubt on the safety and stability of the new pension scheme, point out that you knew NOTHING of these documents until now – i.e. nearly 20 years after you had to make your decision on pensions. Ask why these documents were hidden from you. This is deliberate deception.
If the BEIS say there have been two Parliamentary debates on the matter point out that in both cases the Government Minister’s reply was flawed – in the first case the Minister said he could not intervene because ‘it would open the flood gates to BT.’ However BT’s pension fund has a Government guarantee! In the second case the Minister said GAD give information not advice. However in their Mission Statement GAD say they do give advice! Yes, this will annoy both Ministers and MPs – good, the more annoyed they get the better. There are other things you can do; ask us for full details.