In their formal response to the Parliamentary ombudsman's report into collapsed pension schemes, the Government has cleared itself from the responsibility for pension losses, dismissing calls for compensation, and passing the blame over to scheme trustees and employers.
The ombudsman's report, which was released in March, concluded that government advice had been 'sometimes inaccurate, often incomplete, largely inconsistent and therefore potentially misleading'. She then called on ministers to use taxpayer's money to restore benefits lost by up to 85,000 people in the UK.
The Governments' recent response stated that 'it was the 'fundamental responsibility' of trustees and employers to provide detailed information to scheme members, and that government information was complete given the context and the intended audience'.
Our view
It is this Government that introduced strict funding rules on pension funds and this, combined with poor investment markets over the last five years or so, has created the environment where businesses are closing pension funds and even being forced to close down altogether.