Workers turning back from personal pension plans: Shortfall for widow

A CASE of possible mis-selling cameto light when Mandy Miller of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, an ex-miner's widow, contacted the administrators of the Miners' Pension Scheme.

She said that the personal pension her late husband had been sold by a Pearl Assurance salesman in 1992 offered substantially inferior benefits to those she would have received under the mineworkers' scheme. Under that, Mrs Miller would now be entitled to a pounds 7,200 lump sum, an index-linked annual pension of pounds 1,448 and an allowance for her child. The Pearl Assurance personal pension offers a lump sum of pounds 2,500 plus pounds 400 per annum, or an annual pension only of pounds 500.

A spokesman for Pearl said: 'Pearl will ensure that the widow is not disadvantaged as a result of poor advice.'

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