The Financial Assistance Scheme
Background
The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) offers help to some people who have lost out on their pension because:
- they were a member of an under-funded defined benefit scheme that started to wind-up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005, and either:
- their scheme began to wind-up and did not have enough money to pay members’ benefits, and
- the employer cannot pay the shortfall because it is insolvent, no longer exist or no longer has to meet its commitment to pay its debt to the pension scheme: or
- they were a member of an under-funded defined-benefit scheme that started to wind up after 5 April 2005 but before 22 December 2008 and is ineligible for help from the Pension Protection Fund because the sponsoring employer became insolvent before 6 April 2005.
The FAS is managed by Board of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a statutory corporation established under the provisions of the Pensions Act 2004 which is accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
The FAS makes payments to top up scheme benefits to eligible members of schemes that are winding-up or have wound-up.
Current information on the Financial Assistance Scheme for pension scheme members and pension professionals is now to be found on the Pension Protection Fund FAS website.
Our Timeline of events shows the developments in the FAS since it was announced in 2004 and Legislation summarises relevant Regulations as they came into force.
