Pension aid will help only a few

Money earmarked to help members of insolvent pension schemes will only cover a handful of those affected, one of Tony Blair's advisers has claimed.

Ros Altmann, an expert in pensions economics, warned yesterday that cash allocated to the Financial Assistance Scheme would not provide for all of the estimated 65,000 members of underfunded pension plans. The £20million a year the Government has pledged over the next two decades would buy average pensions of £6,000 a year for only 135.