THE CELEBRATIONS were back on last night after Hampshire workers were told they would be part of Whitehall pension parachute scheme after all.

It ended 24 hours of agonising uncertainty for pensioners at APW Electronics at Chandler's Ford who thought their hopes of getting a decent pension payout had been dashed after a Whitehall blunder.

Champagne corks had been popping after employees who lost up to 80 per cent of their company pensions were told that they would be eligible for thousands of pounds in compensation.

It meant victory for a long-running Daily Echo campaign. But the party celebrations soon turned flat when the Department for Work and Pensions admitted that a "departmental drafting error" had meant that a letter incorrectly stated that workers would qualify for help from the Financial Assistance Scheme.

Pensions minister James Purnell apologised to Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne and to APW pensioners over the mix-up.

In a telephone conversation with Mr Huhne on Friday morning, Mr Purnell said he was very sorry about the error which was due to the official concerned seeing on the record that the pension scheme of another company called APW had been approved for help.

Mr Huhne said: "This has been a pretty shambolic episode. But at least I am convinced now that the minister will be giving his extra care and attention to the APW pensioners' plight. The whole sorry tale has gone on far, far too long".

But last night it was a different story when the Department for Works and Pensions issued a statement which said: "In light of uncertainty caused by an error in a letter sent to Chris Huhne MP we felt it was vital that we resolved the issue as quickly as possible.

"But we did not want to mislead Mr Huhne and APW scheme members about FAS qualification, or to raise false hopes.

"Since then the FAS operational unit has been working flat out on the APW application process in order to minimise the distress caused to scheme members.

"After reviewing all the information available about the scheme, we are pleased to announce that APW has qualified for the Financial Assistance Scheme.'' Mr Huhne said: "I am obviously delighted that we are back on track and that the government has accepted that APW is part of the scheme.

"I look forward to see the whole procedure finished."