Pensions Scandal: 'I was sick of all the phone calls and visits so I signed'

William Frodsham had to be visited three times by an insurance company salesman before he cracked and agreed to transfer his money to a private pension scheme from the Mineworkers Pension Scheme, to which he had belonged.

On the previous two occasions, Mr Frodsham, formerly a miner at Sutton Manor pit, in Lancashire, had shown the salesman the door.

The third time, in early 1988, he gave in: 'I had just taken redundancy when this man called round. I don't know how he got my name and address but I found out later that he was calling on other people from the pit.

'The man kept on coming round the house. He was talking about projections and such.

'I couldn't understand what he was on about. I can't read very well, but I was sick of all the phone calls and the visits. In the end I simply signed.'

Mr Frodsham, from Billinge, near St Helens, agreed to transfer 34 years worth of contributions from the miners' scheme to Legal & General, the company for which the salesman worked.

Ronnie Hutcheon, a solicitor with a Merseyside law firm, J Keith Park & Co, represents hundreds of redundant miners now fighting for pension compensation. He estimates that had Mr Frodsham stayed with the MPS he would be receiving a weekly pension of pounds 37.81 at the age of 60, plus a lump sum payment of nearly pounds 6,000 in addition to his other pension entitlements.

L&G forecast that his pension would be between pounds 49 a week and pounds 21 a week. The lump sum would range from pounds 6,000 to pounds 2,000, although Mr Frodsham would have had to work another five years under this scheme.

(Photograph omitted)