VICTIMS of one of Hampshire's biggest pensions scandals have reacted bitterly after learning they will not benefit from a government safety net.

Staff at APW Electronics who face losing up to 80 per cent of their nest eggs had pinned their hopes on a parliamentary debate to persuade ministers to bail them out.

Those hopes were dashed when pensions minister Malcolm Wicks ruled that they were not eligible for help under the £400m Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), as reported in later editions of yesterday's Daily Echo.

After the debate at Westminster yesterday, Mr Wicks revealed in a written statement that workers at APW in Chandler's Ford would be excluded from the FAS, for which about 380 firms are eligible, because the company is not insolvent, and that taxpayers could not be expected to shore up the pension obligations of companies still trading.

David Chidgey, Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh, said he was stunned by the minister's negative response.

Ex-pensions minister John Denham, Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, said he was bitterly disappointed by the news, while New Forest East MP Julian Lewis, a Tory frontbencher, said APW had "stolen" workers' pensions.

The written statement from the Department for Work and Pensions was made at the end of an adjournment debate, secured by Mr Chidgey, on the APW pensions crisis.

Terry Edwards, regional officer for skilled workers' union Amicus, said it was "quite a blow" and the end of a lifeline for hundreds of workers who face losing 80 per cent of their pensions after the scheme was wound up in the High Court to keep the company solvent.

He said: "It is quite a blow. That was a lifeline to hundreds of people. We will be very disappointed if this is the end of the road for protecting their pensions."

Staff expecting about £20,000 a year could receive just £4,000 after APW bosses revealed a £55m black hole in the pensions fund.

The collapsed pension scheme affects more than 1,000 current and deferred members.

Mike Aitken and his wife Jennifer, of Croxford Road, Bitterne Park, Southampton, were looking forward to a comfortable retirement in nine years' time, when Mike was scheduled to draw an inflation-proof annual pension of £16,081.

The 80 per cent cut in pension payments means he can now expect to receive less than £3,000.

The 56-year-old father-of-two said: "I was hoping something good was coming to come of this.

"The company is really just stealing from us. How can a company stay working and employing people when basically they have take our money away? We can't understand.

"We were very hopeful for this meeting. Now we will probably have to sell our house and we are likely to have to carry on working, which we don't want to do."

Karen Deighton and her fiance Wayne Taylor, also from Southampton, were looking forward to drawing a pension of almost £40,000 a year between them at the age of 65. Now they will get only £8,000.

Karen, who stopped working to have her first baby seven months ago, said: "We were quite hopeful - we thought the government could have done something, but it seems that no one is interested.

"I took long enough to have a baby and I wanted to spend time with her. But now I will have to go back to work to make ends meet."