Alan Johnson MP

I began investigating this matter when some of the ex-trawlermen’s representatives in hull suggested to me that there might be around 100 people who had yet to receive payment from what was a compulsory contribution to the Humber Fishermen’s pension scheme, which commenced in april 1961 and was wound up with the collapse of the fishing industry in 1983. Eventually it came to be known that 1,111 Hull trawlermen who had reached the age of 65 over the last 20 odd years had never received their payment. If you believe that you, or someone you know, paid into this scheme please contact norwich union on 01438 732 446 or write to them at: fishermen’s pension scheme, ref: CM04, PO box 203, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, SG1 2WH. They will need your national insurance number and date of birth. If you are calling on behalf of a relative that is deceased then you will also need a copy of the death certificate….

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.