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More than 6,000 ex-employees of car manufacturer MG Rover will now receive their pensions from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

Workers at MG Rover's Longbridge plant were made redundant after the car manufacturer went into administration in April 2005, raising concerns that many of the former employees would not receive the money they had saved for retirement.

However the PPF has announced it will now take total control of the 6,228 workers' pensions. It also revealed that a further five schemes had joined the PPF taking the total to nine.

Created in April 2005, the PPF protects workers by paying out compensation if a UK-based pension scheme is short of funds when the company becomes insolvent.

"We are here to safeguard the savings of the 12 million people who are members of eligible defined benefit occupational pension schemes," chief executive Partha Dasgupta said.

He added: "The payments we will now make show we are doing just that and those affected can be reassured that their income every month comes from a known, trusted and stable source."

By the end of 2007-2008 a further 65 schemes may formally transfer to the PPF, according to estimates by the board.

"It also sends out an important message of reassurance to more than 100,000 scheme members currently in assessment, and to scheme members set to come through our doors in the future, that they can look forward to security in retirement," added PPF chairman Lawrence Churchill.