How the Financial Assistance Scheme works
In summary
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As a scheme member, you may be or become eligible for payments from the FAS if you:
- belong (or have belonged) to a pension scheme that qualifies for the FAS;
- have a right to benefits you accrued (built-up) in the scheme; and were a member at the time the scheme began to wind-up.
The FAS will pay you up to 90% of the pension you accrued (built-up) in your scheme before it started to wind-up.
However, the FAS payments you get will not necessarily cover all the different types of benefits you may have been entitled to under your original pension scheme, for example, indexation (linking payments to inflation and other extra benefits). FAS payments are paid for life at a fixed rate and do not currently increase.
We make these payments on top of any pension you receive from your scheme, up to a combined total of £26,000 a year. This is called the cap. The cap applies to any pension that is, or will be, paid. So, if a member’s pension was £30,000 a year from their scheme and the scheme could not pay anything, the FAS would work out 90% of £30,000 (£27,000). But, because of the cap, the FAS will not pay more than £26,000 a year.
As long as we have all the information we need, FAS payments will be paid from your normal retirement age (but not before age 60) or from 14 May 2004, whichever is later. Normal retirement age is the age you would normally retire at, as set out in your pension scheme rules. However, this may not cover any rules which allow members to retire early, or where early retirement was normally allowed but was not formally included in the rules.
If you were a member of more than one qualifying scheme, you can receive FAS payments for each qualifying scheme you had pension entitlements in. This could mean that you may receive more than £26,000 from the FAS. Also, if you were a member of a qualifying scheme and you are the surviving husband, wife or civil partner of an eligible member, you may also receive a FAS payment for each qualifying scheme your husband, wife or civil partner had pension entitlements in.