Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of restoring occupational pensions to people who withdrew them prior to the establishment of the Pension Protection Fund.

This Government has not made an assessment on the matter.

The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) existed prior to the Pension Protection Fund, to make payments to members of qualifying DB schemes that started to wind-up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005.

The FAS provides compensation to eligible members of DB pension schemes, such as in cases where the employer has undergone a qualifying insolvency event and the scheme lacks sufficient assets to meet its liabilities. It makes payments to eligible members who are unable to receive the full value of their accrued pension benefits, helping to safeguard retirement income where the scheme itself cannot secure those benefits in full.