The UK lifeboat scheme has topped up the compensation given to some of the members of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) who were wrongly advised to transfer by defunct advisory firm Active Wealth.
In an update issued ahead of a parliamentary debate on 10 April, the FSCS said it has received 77 claims and paid compensation totalling £1.8m ($2.3m, €2.1m) to 61 individuals.
That works out to just over £30,000 per claimant.
The FSCS topped up five of those payments following recalculations, with one customer recouping an additional £80,000.
Of the remaining 16 compensation claims, 11 suffered no loss and were not entitled to any money.
The final five cases will be determined soon.
Active Wealth was declared in default by the FSCS in March 2018.
Mark Neale, outgoing FSCS chief executive, said: “We know that there are other BSPS members who may be entitled to make a claim but have yet to come forward.
“I urge to make a claim direct with FSCS at no cost, via our website or contacting us for more information.”
Transfer scandal
In December 2017, BSPS members were asked to shift their defined benefit pensions to another plan; stay in the fund, which was moved to the Pension Protection Fund as British Steel was closing its existing scheme; or transfer out.
Some of those opting for the last option became entangled in a scandal which saw financial advisers encourage steelworkers to transfer their DB pots to other investment.
This resulted in a lot of people investing their money in self-invested personal pension schemes (Sipps) that held esoteric, high-risk overseas funds.
In January, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) said it is looking to compensate former members of the BSPS for upfront costs associated with the advice they received to transfer their pensions from advisory firm Active Wealth.
