Steelworkers get improved payouts from Financial Services Compensation Scheme

9 Apr 2019 03:09 PM

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has issued an update today (9th April 2019) about its compensation decisions for British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) members affected by the failure of Active Wealth, which wrongly advised them on pension transfers. The FSCS update comes ahead of a debate tomorrow in Parliament led by Nick Smith MP about the steelworkers' case.

To date FSCS has received 77 claims and paid compensation totalling £1.8m to 61 of these claimants, an average of just over £30,000 per claimant. FSCS topped up five of those claimants after recalculations, including one customer who had previously received no compensation, with an additional total of £80,000. Of the total 77 claimants, 11 suffered no loss and so were not entitled to any compensation. Five remaining cases are likely to be decided soon.

Mark Neale, outgoing FSCS CEO, said: "We know that there are other BSPS members who may be entitled to make a claim but have yet to come forward. I urge to make a claim direct with FSCS at no cost, via our website or contacting us for more information."

Notes 

1. The loss incurred by 16 claimants exceeded FSCS's £50,000 limit. These claimants received a combined £800,000 but lost a total of £2.2m. If the new compensation limit of £85,000 in force from 1 April 2019 had been in place at the time of the failure, then the losses incurred by 12 of these claimants would still have exceeded this limit.
2. Find out more about FSCS on our Notes for editors page.