EXPOSED: NEW HAMMERING FOR PITS £10BN
Government has helped itself to fund surpluses for years Pitworkers live on payouts as little as under £10 a week
THE Government has spent a huge £10BILLION of pension cash which could have benefited retired miners.
And in the meantime some of the pensioners are getting disgracefully low payouts of as little as £10 a week or less.
The Government has been mining the rich seam of pension money for 23 years.
And Chancellor Philip Hammond still intends to snaffle £51million a year, or £153million between now and 2019.
Now Labour MPs in former pit constituencies want a halt – and are demanding Mr Hammond gives future windfalls to former miners and their families instead.
Ex-shadow minister Gloria De Piero, who is leading the 22-MP group, accused the Treasury of pocketing an “obscene amount” of cash already and said: “Enough is enough.”
The row dates back to 1994, when British Coal was privatised and ministers agreed the Government would act as guarantor for its two pension schemes.
Under the deal, any future surplus would be split 50/ 50 between the Treasury and scheme members.
The Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme had 200,000 members and the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme 57,000.
While they were working miners contributed 5.25 per cent of their pay towards pensions.
HOLIDAY
In 1996 it was estimated the funds would generate a £2billion surplus over the next 25 years.
But they are doing much better than expected and the Treasury got a total of £10billion to spend on what it liked.
This huge sum has arisen from surpluses, money held as an investment reserve and a £1.1billion, seven-year contributions holiday dating back to British Coal’s involvement.
Now Ms De Piero and the National Union of Mineworkers want extra money shared out more fairly in future.
The MP for Ashfield, Notts said: “We can’t turn the clock back. But in next month’s Budget I call on the Tories to put things right by promising future surpluses will go to ex-miners and their widows.”
Ms De Piero has already met Business Secretary Greg Clark to find a solution but got no joy.
Now she is setting up further talks with the MPS pension trustees to see if a new deal can be hammered out.
Former Notts NUM area president Keith Stanley added: “A lot of pensioners are on ver y, ver y low pensions whilst the Government has been making billions.
“If we had run the MPS on our own maybe pensioners would not be on less than £ 10 a week pensions now. The spirit of the scheme when it was set up was to benefit miners, not governments.” The Government has received £3.4billion in its role as guarantor of the MPS and a further £3.1billion from the BCSSS. The investment reserve funds are nearly £ 2.8billion while the contributions holiday dating back to 1987-94 takes the final sum to more than £10billion.
The money the Government has trousered would have been enough to pay for 16 new hospitals, 11,100 MRI scanners or hire 131,000 extra doctors. Coal mining has been going through a steady decline since the 1950s when there were 1,334 deepmines and 92 surface mines.
The last deep mines in the UK, Hatfield and Kellingley, Yorks and Thoresby, Notts, closed in 2015.
The Business Department said: “The Government continues to guarantee pensions will be paid. Members have received pensions Amount Chancellor plans to take annually for next three years How the 1994 deal agreed any surplus would be divided Number of workers who were in the two pit pension schemes What the Treasury windfall would be worth to each miner Year the last deep mines closed down in Yorks and Notts approximately 30 per cent larger than would have been the case without the guarantee and these will rise with inflation.”
According to official estimates, 4,891 defined benefit schemes were in deficit last year and 1,054 in surplus.