SNP MP brings mis-selling of Anderson Mining Group pensions before Commons

Motherwell and Wishaw MP, Marion Fellows, this week secured an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons to highlight the mis-selling of pension schemes to hundreds of Anderson Mining Group employees in 1997.

The pensioners were persuaded by Godwins (now Aon), to transfer their final salary pension scheme to a personal pension under a S.32 transfer and around 400 employees signed up to the transition.

The original scheme calculated their pension based on the retirement age of 60, whereas the new scheme made estimates based on the retirement age of 65.

The pensioners took their case to the Financial Ombudsman who ruled in favour of 50 per cent of the near 200 claims lodged. However, the Ombudsman failed to take further action to investigate the irregularities of the pension transitions.

Speaking before the debate, Marion Fellows said: “The Anderson Mining Group employees have worked hard all their lives to secure a pension that would support them in their retirement and have been entirely misled by Godwins, now Aon, which has resulted in an unacceptable cut to their pension.

“Numerous employees raised claims with the Financial Ombudsman Service and almost 50 per cent of claims for miss-selling were successful. The employees who missed out calculate that a total of £15 million pounds should be payable to unsuccessful claimants.

“Some of the initial cases raised to the Ombudsman were actually rejected, despite the Ombudsman agreeing with much of the evidence submitted.

“Some former employees have been pursuing their claims for 16 years now and it is time that the UK Government and the Financial Ombudsman Service righted the injustices suffered and ensure these claimants are compensated for what they are due.

“The Financial Ombudsman Service has never recognised what appears to be a systemic failure in these pension transfers. This has led to a classic situation where no one has taken concerted action to investigate this miss-selling and compensate all of the victims.”

A spokesman for Aon told Scottish Financial News that they have been looking into the matter.