Ministers headed off a major backbench rebellion over pensions last night, promising more public money to restore the savings pots of people who lost out when their companies went bust.

Ahead of a crunch House of Commons vote, Mike O'Brien, the pensions minister, told MPs that the government would match any extra funds identified by actuaries in schemes that had gone under. He declined to put a figure on how much more funding would be made available but said it could be found from within the Department for Work and Pensions budget.