Report by Local Democracy Reporter – Jon Cooper
Derbyshire County Council’s leader highlighted how retired miners are still waiting on more than £1bn to be released from the locked mineworkers’ pension fund as the Labour Government hopes to strike a payout deal within weeks.
Government Chancellor John Healey told the House of Commons during the autumn budget announcement on October 28 that work was under way to release the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme (MPS) Guarantor’s Fund to former miners.
But after Labour MPs, Reform UK Derbyshire County Council Leader Alan Graves, and scheme trustees raised concerns that a final settlement would not be reached in the budget and that miners were still waiting for a full payout, the Chancellor said he would like to strike a deal that would release the remaining pension funds in weeks, not months.
Following the budget, Cllr Graves said: “Our miners are still waiting for the £1.2bn that is rightfully theirs.
“Derbyshire works hard. It deserves a Government that backs it. Reform UK will.”
Cllr Graves’s comments also came just days before the Reform UK Party called on the Labour Government, on November 2, to finally settle the MPS quickly and pay its members before Christmas.
The Reform UK Party even stated that if the current Labour Government fails to settle the MPS before Christmas, Reform will do so within its first 100 days of power if elected into Government.
Reform also accused the Chancellor of failing to set a clear and unambiguous timetable in the budget for finally resolving the MPS situation.
Even though Mr Healey pledged in the budget the full transfer of the Guarantor’s Fund, believed to be worth £1.2bn, and promised to ensure pensions continue to rise for former miners instead of being subject to a ‘standstill arrangement’ no timeline for a final settlement was announced.
The money is locked up in the MPS which was closed to new members when the British Coal Board was privatised in 1994.
The Government at the time promised that the value of the fund would not decrease, but only half of any surplus from the investments would go towards pension bonuses and the remaining half would be taken by the Government.
However, at the budget, Mr Healey announced an end to the plan to split the investment surplus so MPS members will be able to use all of the surpluses generated from the performance of their schemes in the future to increase their pensions.
Reform UK Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick and Reform UK Chairperson Lee Anderson said in a joint statement: “Enough is enough. Miners and their families have waited too long.
“Tragically, 18 ex-miners die every day without the fair resolution of this matter they deserve. The members must now be paid by Christmas.
“If that does not happen, a Reform UK Government will end surplus sharing and the standstill mechanism and immediately transfer the undistributed surplus funds – including the Guarantor’s Fund – to MPS members.
“No more messing around. Miners can be assured that they will get the resolution they have been denied until now under a Reform UK Government.”
Labour Amber Valley MP Linsey Farnsworth, whose poorly father worked as a miner, told ministers that if a final settlement is not reached soon more miners will die without receiving their deserved pension fund payout.
Mr Healey told the Commons during the budget that ‘work is under way’ to release the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme Guarantor’s Fund to former miners but scheme trustees and others have urged the Chancellor to find a faster way to release the money.
Labour MPs demanded an update saying the undistributed surplus funds belong to the miners and the Government should release these funds.
Mr Healey subsequently stated that steps taken in the budget, guaranteeing that every penny of the pension fund surplus will go in full to miners, have been welcomed but he recognises there is more to do.
The Chancellor added that he will ensure the full transfer of the Guarantor’s Fund which he says he wants to resolve in weeks, not months.
