A pension provider is set to pay more than £500,000 to members after breaching the terms of its own policy. Financial services company Wesleyan administers pensions for many former employees of Allied Steel and Wire (ASW), a major Cardiff-based firm which went bust in 2002. Last month we reported that a former senior manager at ASW had discovered a discrepancy in payments.
The underpayment began in 2013 when Wesleyan changed the pension scheme's inflation measure from the Retail Price Index (RPI) to the typically lower Consumer Prices Index (CPI). Wesleyan apologised for the "error" and vowed to repay the money owed plus an 8% annual interest payment backdated to the start of the breach.
The former ASW manager who exposed the underpayment initially believed he stood to benefit in the region of £500 but he has now received a payment of double that figure. He estimates more than 1,000 former colleagues are on the same scheme. Wesleyan has told WalesOnline that the refunds and compensation will total more than £500,000.
