Region ‘ has highest number of people affected by pensions deal’
A SOUTH Yorkshire MP says that South Yorkshire has the highest number of members of a controversial pension scheme in the UK.
The Mineworkers Pension Scheme ( MPS) has 130,047 members with one in five – 27,051 – living in and around South Yorkshire.
The new figures came from a request from John Healey, MP for Wentworth and Dearne to the House of Commons Library.
Mr Healey says that 6,710 members in and around the Wentworth and Dearne constituency alone – more than in the whole of the North- West region or in the four southernmost English regions combined and that the average pension is just £ 84 a week.
Mr Healey said: “These new figures show what a difference it would make in our area if the Government listened and gave miners and their families a decent deal.
“They deserve better than £ 84 a week after the very tough job they did underground to keep our country going. It is time for the government to do what is right and cut their share so more pension support goes to the mineworkers.”
The government and the scheme trustees reached an agreement on the future arrangements for pensions from the MPS after the privatisation of British Coal in 1994.
This saw the government guarantee that any pension earned up to privatisation would not fall in cash terms, with any surplus at subsequent valuations to be shared equally ( 50/ 50) between the scheme members and the government.
However, the arrangement has been a source of controversy ever since, with the Coalfield Communities Campaign arguing for a review of the agreement in the 2000s.
The campaign says that a “50 per cent share of an unexpectedly large surplus is too much”.
Trustees wrote to scheme members to confirm that they had received support from the Energy Minster for a proposal for greater protection of existing benefits.