Pension victims face 'delay'

Up to one million people could face delays

Up to one million victims of the pensions mis-selling scandal could face a delay in receiving compensation, a report says.

The Financial Services Authority ( FSA) has miscalculated the amount owed to victims, the report in the Times said.

The mistake is expected to add £500m to the insurance industry's bill for clearing up the mis selling scandal.

In the late eighties, an estimated three million people were wrongly advised to leave their company pension scheme for a personal pension.

These people would have been better off staying in, or joining, their employer's scheme.

Salesman greed

Salesmen could often net great personal rewards in commission payments for selling the policies, which often left the consumer worse off.

These firms have since been advised to contact people who took out personal pensions between these dates and ask them if they want their cases checked.

The first phase of the review, to compensate workers in or close to retirement, has already been completed.

It led to compensation awards to 370,000 investors totalling more than £2.3bn.

The deadline for the remaining cases, which mostly involve younger people, was 31 March 2000.

Pension companies have also been fined millions for not reviewing their case loads fast enough.