David Johnston, MP for Wantage and Didcot, has welcomed the news that the National Audit Office has agreed to his request to look at the case of the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) pensioners.

When part of the AEA was moved to a new company, AEA Technology, in the 1990s, 90 per cent of employees transferred their pensions to the new company scheme.

However, in 2012 the company went bust, significantly affecting the value of the pensions that had been transferred.

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The pensioners affected have been campaigning for the past 10 years and Mr Johnston, who represents the largest number of those affected, has been campaigning on their behalf in Parliament since his election in 2019.

As part of his campaign, the MP has lobbied ministers, written to the parliamentary ombudsman and presented a bill in the House of Commons, as well as founding and chairing a parliamentary group of MPs and lords committed to helping the pensioners.

Last year Mr Johnston met with the head of the National Audit Office (NAO), Gareth Davies, to present the evidence and argue that the case should be looked at by the NAO.

Mr Davies agreed, and as a result the NAO will be preparing a report which will set out the facts of the AEA Technology pension scheme transfer, including the information provided to scheme members at the point of privatisation and the response scheme members have received to their complaints from public bodies.

This is the first time that the case has been independently investigated.

This report will be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee, who have now announced an inquiry into the case and issued a call for evidence.

A spokesperson for the AEAT Pension Campaign said: “AEAT pensioners have been denied the pensions that they worked and paid for, in full, in good faith.

“After ten years of campaigning for fair treatment, the AEAT Pension Campaign welcomes the National Audit Office examination of our case.

“We would like to acknowledge the tireless assistance of David Johnston MP in supporting our campaign since his election - and, in particular, enabling this objective investigation to take place.”

Mr Johnston said:“I am delighted that the National Audit Office will be looking at this case after 10 years of the pensioners being pushed from pillar to post in search of an organisation that would.

“This is a big breakthrough and I’m grateful to the parliamentarians who’ve supported me in this and most of all, to the AEAT Pension Campaign, whose members have been dogged in their fight to ‘have their day in court.’”

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1