Please contact my consituency office on johnsona@parliament.uk with your address if you would like to be sent an application form. Or alternatively, call the Trawlermen Helpline on 0845 604 3477 where you can request the form and also get advice on whether you are eligible to apply.

The important point to remember about the limited re-opening of the trawlermen’s compensation scheme that I helped the British Fishermen’s Association to secure in 1999 is that it will principally be the men whose payments were reduced by the so called “break in service” rule who will rightly benefit.

This rule insisted that if a fisherman worked outside the industry or sailed on non-Icelandic trawlers for longer than 12 weeks, their compensation (calculated at £1000 for each year of service) applied to the years after the break but not before.

Every trawler based in Hull went to Icelandic waters so the main problem concerned men such as the late Johnnie Johnson, a stalwart of the BFA, who because of serious illness had to work ashore for over a year. Thus Johnnie, who spent his whole life at sea, received much less than the £20,000 maximum.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman has ruled that this aspect was unfair and all those men affected will have their payments recalculated on their aggregate service over the last 20 years of their career.

Port MPs have also succeeded in their argument that new claims from people who didn’t come forward when the scheme was open between 2000 and 2003 can submit a claim now but conditions apply and such new claimants should contact me.

There are a couple of other minor points too complex to explain here but I will be distributing claim forms to those trawlermen who have contacted me already and these will be available throughout the City after the 31 July.

Men like Ron Bateman and the late Ray Smith from the now defunct BFA worked hard to achieve a compensation scheme. This modification will correct an anomaly and pay between £5 million and £10 million to those affected.

Newsletter for West Hull

Newsletter for Hessle

From my very first speech in the House of Commons as an MP, I have been working hard to ensure that the trawlermen get a fair deal.

I fought hard to win the men compensation for having their livelihoods taken away.  Although the trawler owners received generous payments and grants, the trawlermen received nothing. There were no assistance programmes, no retraining and no redundancy. Working with the British Fishermen’s Association who had been fighting for over 20 years, I was finally successful in ensuring that nearly £50m compensation was paid out to distant water fishermen from all ports with the majority going to men from Hull.

Now it seems that after being treated so badly when they were thrown out of their jobs, they are being let down in their retirement as well.  I am working to get the money that the men put into their pensions paid out to them. This may seem straight forward as it’s the only fair thing to happen but instead I have uncovered an unbelievable story of missing records, incomplete records and general bad management.

The Humber Fishermen’s Pension Scheme was created in 1961 and thousands of men paid into it. When I started investigating a few cases, I discovered that a total of 1,111 men had not been paid the money owed to them!

I have sought legal advice and am in the process of a series of meetings with lawyers and the Trustees and the Insurers of the Pensions Scheme to try and get a fair outcome for the local men who sailed from Hull.

I will keep you updated on the outcome of my efforts to get this outrageous situation put right.

This is the press statement I gave on 1st January 2007

I am, of course, pleased that Norwich Union have belatedly launched their “Find a Fisherman” campaign.  The fact is, however, that if representatives of the fishing community in Hull, working through me as their MP, had not exposed this dreadful situation, these men’s pensions would have continued to lay dormant in a fund worth almost £1.5 million.

Many of the 4,540 fishermen who we now know contributed to a pension that they never received will have died.  Many more will be over 20 years into a retirement that could have been eased by receiving the pension that was rightfully theirs.

It is simply unacceptable that either Norwich Union, or the trawler owners did anything to ensure that the men’s National Insurance numbers were recorded in the scheme records.

Working with colleagues in the other ports affected, my first priority will be to provide National Insurance numbers.

I have already written to the Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, to have the records established for the trawlermen’s compensation scheme in 1999 made available to trace the men whose pensions are overdue.  When I meet Mark Hodges, the Chief Executive of Norwich Union, early in the New Year, I’d like to hear what plans the company have made to compensate the ex-trawlermen and their families for the slap-dash way in which this scheme has been administered.

It should be remembered that from 1961 trawlermen had no choice but to pay into this scheme.  Unlike most other occupational pension schemes, this compulsory contribution was matched but not exceeded by the trawler owners.  Having been compelled to pay in, what seems that nobody has been compelled to pay out.

This was a disgraceful way to treat men who risked their lives every working day in an industry that was as arduous to the men as it was necessary to the nation.