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A complaint that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the former Department of Social Security (DSS) acted unreasonably in the way they dealt with the Maxwell Communications Pensions Plan has not been upheld by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman’s report - Maxwell Communications Pension Plan complaint – published on 23 March 2005 gives a full account of the Office’s investigation and conclusions.
Background
The Plan was one of four Maxwell pension schemes which received part of a £276 million out of court settlement (the major settlement) in 1995. A member of the scheme complained that the Maxwell Pensions Unit, set up by the DSS, failed properly to oversee and administer the distribution of the major settlement with the result that the Plan received an unfairly small share of the available money. He also complained that the Department acted unreasonably in refusing to give further financial assistance to the Plan and took too long to make that decision.
Conclusions
The report concludes that the Department did not take an unreasonably long time to deal with their request for financial assistance. In particular:
We have seen no evidence that the predicament in which the Plan members now find themselves was caused by maladministration on the part of DSS/DWP;
We do not consider that the DWP acted unreasonably in refusing financial assistance to the Plan or in taking a long time to reach that decision. The Government had made it clear that it was not obliged to use taxpayers’ money to make good losses resulting from the fraudulent misuse of pension funds;
The distribution of the £276 million out of court Major settlement by the Maxwell Pensions Unit was not an administrative function of the DSS and was, therefore, not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
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