The Financial Assistance Scheme
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The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) offers help to some people who have lost out on their pension where they were a member of an under-funded defined benefit pension scheme that started to wind up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005, and the employer is insolvent or no longer exists, or a compromise agreement has been reached with the employer.
The scheme is managed by the Department for Work and Pensions and is administered by the FAS Operational Unit (FAS OU), It currently makes payments to top up your scheme benefits to 80 per cent of expected core pension (subject to a cap £26,000) to eligible members of schemes that are winding up or have wound up from age 65.
Assistance is also payable to the survivor of a pension scheme member . A survivor is the member’s surviving wife, husband or civil partner of a member or former member of a qualifying pension scheme who died after the scheme started to wind-up.
The Secretary of State announced on 17th December 2007 proposed extensions to the scheme, The key areas of change are as follows:
- The headline rate of assistance is to be raised to 90 per cent of accrued pension payable from scheme normal retirement age (but not before age 60), (subject to a cap of £26,000 per annum)
- Inclusion of some schemes with solvent employers
- Access to early payment of assistance where a member is unable to work on ill health grounds from age 60 onwards
Please note that the changes listed above are not a complete description of the extensions announced in December 2007. The other amendments to the scheme are detailed in the statement given by the Rt Hon Peter Hain MP (56KB) 
the former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
We will be providing more detail about the proposed changes and when they are likely to be implemented. You can read further information about eligibility for the Financial Assistance Scheme.