Former coal miners demand pension scheme review

Former miners in Wales have repeated calls for a review of the "appalling" arrangement of their pension scheme.

The UK government has so far made £4.4bn from the scheme in return for guaranteeing its cash value.

A parliamentary committee last year called for a review of the arrangement but the government has said it believed the scheme was "fair and beneficial".

Ex-miner Wayne Thomas said: "No government should benefit on the backs of miners and their widows."

The UK government said it was committed to protecting mineworkers' pensions, which have been guaranteed since British Coal was privatised in 1994.

In return, under the agreement, the government gets half of any surplus from the miners' scheme.

Last July, the House of Commons Business Economic and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee concluded the number of scheme members had reduced significantly since 1994, therefore reducing the scheme's financial risk.

However, it said the government's price for providing the guarantee had not been adjusted to reflect this and recommended a review of the scheme surplus sharing arrangement.

It also called for the government relinquish its entitlement to a £1.2bn investment reserve fund which would give an immediate uplift to miners' pensions.

Mr Thomas, south Wales secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, said: "[Miners] paid all their lives to have something back. We're simply asking for an uplift of the surpluses to be given back to the ones who paid into it.

"It would make a difference to individuals. It could be anything between £15 to £20, but if you take a widow on a low pension, [that] could make a big difference. We see the average price of gas going up, heating costs are tremendous. Anything for these widows would benefit all of us."

He added: "The story has been the miners are having a good deal and they've gained substantially because of the government guarantee.

"It may have been the case 20 years ago, but it's not the case any longer."

In an initial response to the BEIS report, the UK government said trustees had preferred to maintain the surplus sharing agreement rather than relinquish the government's guarantee and risk taking 100% of future surpluses.

Anthony Jones, a former miner and a trustee of the scheme, said: "Whilst I respect ministers for their comments in the public arena, we must also understand while there are people who are happy with their pensions, there's a significant amount who are unhappy, especially with the amount that governments have been taking out of the scheme.

"The majority get £10 to £18 per week. They are unfortunately the most elderly in the population with us."

The Coalfields Community Campaign has argued for the agreement to be changed, challenging both Conservative and Labour governments over the past three decades.

About 40 Labour MPs signed a letter calling on the UK government to act on the findings of the BEIS committee.

Among the nine Welsh MPs who joined the call was Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour MP for Torfaen.

"There is a particular urgency at this moment, partly because of the age of miners who are left who deserve that additional quality of life," he said.

"Secondly, because of the particular economic situation we find ourselves in now. So what I'm calling on the UK government to do is to act now with urgency to give the miners the money they richly deserve."

In a statement a UK government BEIS spokesperson said: "Mineworkers' pension scheme members are receiving payments 33% higher than they would have been thanks to the government's guarantee and scheme members have received bonuses in addition to their guaranteed pension."