British Steel pension scandal a betrayal of hard working staff - The Yorkshire Post says

To this day, internationally recognisable landmarks like The Shard in London, stand proud thanks to steel forged in our region.

These materials were produced thanks to skill and hard work of Yorkshire’s men and women over decades, whose only request in return was that they be treated fairly. It is for this profound reason that it is so dismaying to learn that thousands of ex-British Steel workers were advised to switch their hard-earned pension pots away from the company’s more lucrative defined benefits plans.

This fate befell some 8,000 steelworkers who, according to the National Audit Office, were encouraged to transfer away their pots from the defined-benefit British Steel Pension Scheme, many of whom suffered big financial losses as a consequence.

Regulators have announced that close to half of all the advice it had reviewed turned out to be “unsuitable”.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) watchdog has now set out a plan which it says will deliver compensation worth £71.2 million to those who were misled about their pensions, with advisers to be forced to pay compensation to those who switched away.

While the scheme the FCA has devised is of course to be welcomed, the fact that these honest and dedicated workers were handed such shoddy guidance from those they assumed were well-informed and experienced operators is a development which brings shame upon UK industry.

The standard mark of Made in Britain is a global byword for quality and integrity.

That those who established this byword have been treated so poorly is a bitter blow for those who helped make that citation so recognisable.