ABOUT 100 former workers at Sheerness Steel Mill will now get a far better pension deal following a surprise announcement in last week’s Budget.

They are now all in their forties having been made redundant from ASW (Allied Steel and Wire) in 2002.

Chancellor Gordon Brown announced the extra money for them will come from the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) which will rise from £2 billion to £8 billion.

Andrew Parr, 62, of Seaside Avenue, Minster, near Sheerness, who has represented all the former workers in a five-year fight, said: “The Budget announcement really is good news for those former workers now in their forties.

“I am entitled to 80 per cent of my pension under the FAS but younger workers were going to lose out because they were further from retirement.

“But now they will get far more. The big problem is their pension entitlement is not index-linked so it will gradually reduce with inflation – and pensioners still have to pay Council Tax and for their gas and electricity.

“I have been back working at the mill for the past three years and am doing virtually the same job as I did before I was made redundant in the process control systems area. I have to keep working because the FAS will not top up my pension until I am 65.”

Both Community and Amicus unions, which have campaigned for the workers, said it was a major step forward to achieving pension justice.

Among the 125,000 people affected were workers from the Sheerness mill who were there when former owners ASW went bust. They lost the bulk of their pensions when the company was declared bankrupt, leaving two pensions funds in deficit.