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1. Mr A made three complaints.
- That the Maxwell Pensions Unit,which had been set up by the Department of Social Security (DSS) failed properly to oversee and administer the distribution of £276 million collected from financial institutions for the benefit of certain Maxwell pensioners, with the result that the Maxwell Communications Pension Plan (the Plan), of which he is a member, received an unfairly small share.
- That the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) acted unreasonably in refusing to give further financial assistance to the Plan. (The Secretary of State had previously agreed to postpone collection of certain amounts owed to the National Insurance Fund.)
- That DWP took too long to make that decision.
2. We found that, while the Maxwell Pensions Unit had been part of DSS and exercised some administrative function son behalf of that Department, albeit at arms length, the distribution of the £276 million had not been an administrative function of the Department and was,therefore, outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction.
3. We did not consider that DWP acted unreasonably in refusing financial assistance to the Plan. The Secretary of State could not implement the Plan's proposal to 'recycle' payments made to the National Insurance Fund by other pension schemes for the benefit of the Plan. The Government had made clear, at the outset, that it was not obliged to use taxpayers’ money to make good losses resulting from the fraudulent misuse of pension funds. The Secretary of State's subsequent refusal to provide financial assistance to the Plan was consistent with that policy. We cannot question the merits of decisions taken properly in line with Government policy.
4. We found that DWP did not take an unreasonably long time to deal with the Plan’s request for financial assistance.On that basis, we do not consider that their handling of the request was maladministrative. There were matters of detail that had to be sorted out before they could consider whether or not further Government money should be made available. Officials needed to ensure that Ministers had all of the necessary information before asking them to make a decision and, in particular, they had to ensure that the implications of the decision were taken fully into account.Such a significant and politically sensitive decision could not be taken lightly or very quickly.
5. While we sympathise with the predicament in which the Plan's members now find themselves, we have seen no evidence that it was caused by maladministration on the part of DSS/DWP.
