The government has established an independent commission to look at ways of reducing the costs of public sector pensions. Former Labour Work & Pensions Secretary of State, Lord Hutton, is to head the commission but is he the right man for the job? During his time in office he showed neither undertanding of how pension schemes worked nor sympathy with those private sector pension scheme members who lost their pensions due to scheme wind-ups.

Ros Altmann writes:

"This is the man of whom the High Court judge said - and three Court of Appeal judges agreed - 'no reasonable Secretary of State could rationally disagree' with the Ombudsman  - John Hutton was that Secretary of State.

He was the Secretary of State who threatened to bankrupt victims who wanted to challenge him in Court and refused time and again to agree to waive costs if they lost.

He was the Secretary of State who seemed not to understand how pensions worked, when using false arguments to deny Government's clear responsibility for what had happened on wind-up."

Here in detail is what she had to say in 2006 following his rejection of the Ombudsman's report and his evidence to Public Adminstration Select Committee and in the Courts.

It was left to John Hutton's successors at the DWP, Peter Hain and Mike O'Brien to rectify this miscarriage of justice by setting up the Financial Assistance Scheme.