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BHS administration costs higher than expected, Usdaw questions why more wasn’t done to save jobs

Date: 18 January 2017 The Work and Pensions Committee today published correspondence with the concurrent administrators of BHS, Duff & Phelps and FRP Advisory, which show that the costs of the administration were £1.3 million higher than estimated in June 2016.
Shopworkers’ trade union Usdaw has questioned why more wasn’t done to save jobs and protect the BHS pension fund.

Dave Gill – Usdaw National Officer says: “It is deeply regrettable that so much money is being taken out of the business after 11,000 staff were dismissed and the BHS pensioners are still waiting to have their future income secured.

“We have to question the role of the administrators after their stewardship of the company ultimately led to the closure of every store. It is difficult to understand how not one store could be saved or sold as a going concern to another retailer. It is time for Sir Philip Green and others to finally do the right thing and put the former staff first by ‘sorting’ the pension scheme, as was promised last year.”

Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said: “The costs of the demise of BHS continue to spiral as the pensioners wait for Sir Philip Green to sort the pension fund. The PPF are already left scrabbling for a few pence in the pound from what is left of the wreckage of BHS. Meanwhile Duff and Phelps, who were appointed by Sir Philip, have left with half a million more than they expected for doing substantially less of the administration than they expected.”

Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fourth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 440,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 17% in the last five years and by nearly a third in the last decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the Union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion

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