A legal team dedicated to helping Port Talbot steel workers who lost significant parts of their pension savings is claiming back an average of £33,000 per case.
National law firm Clarke Willmott is helping over 170 workers who were badly advised to transfer out of their “gold plated” occupational pension schemes and into risky investments.
[aoa id=”1″]The team, which has opened a dedicated centre to support steel workers in Water Street Business Centre, Port Talbot, was brought together after it emerged Port Talbot steel workers were given bad advice by a firm called Active Wealth UK, which has since gone into receivership. [/aoa]
An estimated 3,500 employees of the Tata Steel works are affected, with many only now discovering they have tens of thousands of pounds missing from their retirement funds.
Clarke Willmott’s expert team in Port Talbot is headed by Philippa Hann, a specialist in investment product mis-selling claims and negligent investment advice.
She said: “We have so far helped 61 steel workers to claim back an average of £33,000 each which goes some way towards plugging the huge gaps they have in their pension pots.
“Sadly, there will be hundreds, even thousands, more out there who were badly advised to opt out of their company final salary schemes and who don’t even realise they have lost huge sums.
“We want to both alert those people to what’s happened and also raise awareness that there is a national compensation scheme which we can help them to access.”
Philippa’s team, which has 25 years’ experience acting for people mis-sold financial products, is working with Al Rush, independent financial advisor with Echelon Wealthcare.
Al said: “Many of these men have been off work with anxiety or suffer stress-related conditions.
“Compensation doesn’t come close to compensating these men for the loss of two Christmases, the family stress, the worry and the uncertainty they have felt.
“But it does come close to winding the clock back and putting them in a position that they would have been in if they hadn’t have transferred.”
Philippa added: “Having already worked with so many steel workers we understand the anger, frustration and fear that these people are going through and, rest assured, we will do everything we can to help them.”
