We speak to the pensions minister about Friday's announcement
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BBC Radio 4's Money Box was broadcast on Saturday, 13 November, 2004 at 1204 GMT.
The programme was repeated on Sunday, 14 November, at 2102 GMT.
The government has said that its Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) will be extended to cover pension funds that are wound up between May 2004 and April 2005.
In May it announced the £400 million fund to boost the money available to an estimated 65,000 people whose schemes had been wound up from 1997.
It was a temporary measure before the new Pension Protection Fund begins next April. But funds that got into trouble between May 2004 and April 2005 were not covered by either scheme.
Now they will be, but there will be no extra money. So the £400 million will have to stretch to cover more people, meaning they will all get less each.
We spoke to Pensions Minister Malcolm Wicks about the announcement and also to Andrew Parr who represents ASW workers, who are expecting help from the FAS.
Christine Farnish, Chief Executive of the National Association of Pension Funds also gave us her reaction.
Producer: Jessica Dunbar
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Samantha Washington
Web Producer: Nathalie Knowles
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