MINISTERS have been urged to help the victims of one of Hampshire's worst pensions scandals.

Southampton MPs John Denham and Alan Whitehead highlighted the plight of 1,260 men and women facing an uncertain retirement after APW Electronics wound up its pensions scheme.

They asked pensions minister Malcolm Wicks to allow workers to benefit from a government financial package, even though the American-based company is not insolvent.

Earlier, about 20 employees and trade union representatives staged a public protest outside the Houses of Parliament before meeting MPs.

As extensively reported by the Daily Echo, many have lost 80 per cent of their pensions after the company, employing 285 people at Chandler's Ford, wound up its scheme to stop the company going under. APW, which makes electronic enclosures, claimed it could not afford to pay in £15m over the next ten years to plug a £55m hole in the fund.

Mr Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, spoke of the "blinding injustice'' caused by a "horrific conjunction of circumstances''. Mr Denham, Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, said pension trustees who agreed to wind up the APW scheme were placed in "an impossible situation'' - either accepting the revised deal or watch the company go bust, with hundreds of job losses.

He said there were two glimmers of hope for some workers: persuading ministers to allow workers to join the Financial Assistance Scheme or letting employees join a retrospective state pensions scheme.

Trustees may have acted differently if they had known that the Department for Work and Pensions would, two days later, announce that solvent companies could join the FAS. Last week, New Forest East MP Julian Lewis accused APW of "blackmailing'' workers into accepting a massive reduction in pension on pain of the company going into liquidation.

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Euro MP for the south-east, said he was investigating whether the UK government had complied with European Commission rules on safeguarding private pensions.