The Financial Assistance Scheme is now administered by the Pension Protection Fund.

FAS offers help to some people who have lost out on their pension because:

• They were a member of an under-funded defined benefit scheme that started to wind up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005, and

• Their scheme began to wind up and did not have enough money to pay members’ benefits, and

• The employer cannot pay the shortfall because it is insolvent, no longer exists or no longer has to meet its commitment to pay its debt to the pension scheme, or

• The scheme started to wind up after 5 April 2005 but is ineligible for help from the PPF due to the employer becoming insolvent before this date.