I fear I’ll die before we miners get our pension cash back
Scandalous plight of terminally ill Roy, 74
TERMINALLY ill former miner Roy Thompson fears he will die of lung disease before Chancellor Rishi Sunak hands back money the Treasury is grabbing from his pension fund.
Roy, 74, has pulmonary fibrosis after 21 years down the pits and is on oxygen 24 hours a day. His final wish is to see a rise in his pension to provide for wife
Carol, 73, and his three adopted children.
But he said: “Governments have been greedy and stole our money. Miners who need it are dying daily, when we should be treated like heroes.”
Ministers are to announce this week whether they will hand over £1.2billion of the
£1.9billion they are due to take out of the Mineworkers’
Pension Scheme in future.
The Sunday Mirror has been campaigning for them to give it back to the ex-miners.
Carol will be entitled to two thirds of Roy’s £84-a-week pension after he dies but
£10 more if the
Treasury decides to refund the MPS.
Roy, from
Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancs, was rushed to hospital with heart failure the day after he spoke to the Sunday Mirror.
The fund-grab scandal began in 1994, as British Coal was privatised. The Government became its pensions guarantor.
Under the deal, surpluses were to be split 50/50 between the Treasury and scheme members. But the fund has done much better than expected and successive governments have had £4.4bn from it.
A Commons energy committee expressed anger at exminers struggling to make ends meet, with some widows on as little as £8.50 a week.
MPs have said the “historic injustice” must be fixed. Energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told them she was “very happy” to look at the proposal.
So far 294,600 miners have died since privatisation, while 124,000 ex-staff claim pensions and 11,000 are deferred.
Mineworkers Pension Campaign Group official Charles Chiverton said: “We have been kicked into the long grass.”
The Government said: “Our sympathies are with Mr
Thompson and his family.”