A BATTLE plan to help the victims of one of the worst pensions crisis in the south will be drawn during a meeting at Parliament today.

At least 40 APW employees, along with trade union representatives and MPs, will attend the talks, which are being chaired by Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead.

More than 1,000 people have lost 80 per cent of their pensions after the scheme was wound up in the High Court to keep the company - employing 285 people near Southampton - from going under.

Staff expecting £10,000 a year will receive just £2,000. One scheme member lost £31,000 in savings that had been transferred from a previous employer.

The crisis emerged when APW bosses at Chandler's Ford revealed a £55m black hole in the pension fund.

APW victims are currently excluded from the imminent Financial Assistance Scheme - a safety net funded by taxpayers - because the company is not insolvent.

The situation is the same for a similar set-up, called the Pensions Protection Fund, which is being funded by the pensions industry.

Mr Whitehead, a Labour backbencher, said: "We want to discuss the way forward as far as APW is concerned and more generally study the wider implications of this pensions debacle."

He said the meeting would consider the role of the pension fund's trustees, who "went beyond their theoretical brief" by negotiating a deal with US-owned APW rather than demanding payment of the pensions.

But he added: "They were in a very difficult position because in demanding the money, the company would have gone insolvent - they still wouldn't have got any money and jobs would've been lost."

Today's meeting has been carefully timed to coincide with a political debate on the controversial issue of pensions.

Union members from APW will also be lobbying outside Parliament today before meeting Mr Whitehead.

Regional TGWU representative Jennie Formby said: "This is another example that proves that more money needs to be devoted to compensating workers who have lost out on their pension through no fault of their own. It is nothing short of a scandal."

The Daily Echo has learnt from a well-placed source at Westminster that pensions minister Malcolm Wicks is "sympathetic" to the APW victims.

But he is said to be wary of using taxpayers' money to bail out collapsed pension schemes in case it opens the floodgates.

There is also the concern that some companies will deliberately offload pension liabilities at the expense of the public, only to make more money in the long run.

However, it is understood that the Financial Assistance Scheme is being looked at again regarding eligibility criteria.