Government to evaluate a second pension scheme for mineworkers

Tens of thousands of additional former mineworkers may soon benefit as the government declared its intention to review another contentious pension arrangement. The Chancellor, during last month’s Budget, abolished a 30-year-old agreement under which the government received hundreds of millions of pounds annually from the Mineworkers Pension Scheme (MPS). The initial payment of the £1.5bn that Rachel Reeves committed to repay is scheduled for Friday. The government has now confirmed its intention to examine a second miners’ pension, following challenges from former pit managers in the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) regarding their exclusion from the new payouts. Earlier in the current month, Dave Cradduck, who dedicated two decades to working at Haig Pit in Whitehaven, Cumbria, informed the BBC that it was “unjust” for “not a penny” to be returned to those in the BCSSS. He stated that the government had withdrawn £4.8bn from the MPS fund and £3.2bn from the BCSSS, implying that members of that scheme were also owed funds. Previously, a spokesperson for the Department for Energy indicated no forthcoming alterations, asserting that the government “must consider the two schemes separately”. However, the department has since announced its commitment to “review any proposals set out by the Trustees of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme”. Last week, the trustees requested that ministers return the £2.3bn investment reserve to the scheme’s members. The government assumed control of both schemes when British Coal underwent privatisation in 1994. These agreements were established between the then-Conservative government and the schemes’ trustees, in exchange for a governmental assurance that the value of mineworkers’ pensions would not diminish. The recent reversal of the MPS arrangement is projected to result in a one-third increase for the pensions of 112,000 former miners. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband commented that it “marks an end to a decades-long injustice that has denied thousands across the country the decent pension that they so undeniably deserve”.