JUSTICE: Richard and Gerald O\u2019Brien with John Musgrave outside Stephanie Peacock\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
A LOCAL MP has vowed to support former pit workers who are calling for \u2018justice\u2019 over their pension scheme.<\/p>\n
A demonstration was held at Barnsley South MP Stephanie Peacock\u2019s Hoyland headquarters on King Street by ex-workers last Friday.<\/p>\n
The location was chosen due to her work on both the Mineworkers\u2019 Pension Scheme (MPS) and the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS).<\/p>\n
Following years of campaigning, Labour delivered justice on the MPS last year by returning the \u00a31bn investment reserve fund to members.<\/p>\n
Eligible ex-miners received an immediate uplift to their pensions, with increased payments worth an average of \u00a329 a week.<\/p>\n
Minister Sarah Jones confirmed that she had also met the BCSSS trustees and has committed to talking to the Treasury about their proposals.<\/p>\n
The MPS has about 120,000 pensioner and deferred members, while the BCSSS has roughly 41,000.<\/p>\n
Previous governments are believed to have taken \u00a34.8bn out of the MPS fund, and \u00a33.2bn out of BCSSS, so therefore those on that scheme were also owed money.<\/p>\n
Gerald O\u2019Brien, 68, from Hoyland, has called for more to be done to support those former pit workers who are owed money.<\/p>\n
He told the Chronicle: \u201cWe\u2019re all members of the BCSSS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a pot of money that\u2019s been taken from the pension, or put aside from the scheme, that we want back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all older men and every year, the people that are due that money are passing on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not fair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to protest about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are MPs that have brought it to the table and it\u2019s supposedly going to be sorted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s not quick enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that although the MPS has been approved – and rightly so – there should be more pressure on government to ensure those not under that scheme are also given the money they are owed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe MPS has been settled, they\u2019ve got their money and their members are benefiting from that greatly which is fantastic,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want that money put back in our pension scheme so it enhances our pensions, especially in this day and age with everything going up and up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want more pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need an answer on when it\u2019s going to happen, and how quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The BCSSS trustees have called on its members to write to MP Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury or the Minister for Industry Sarah Jones.<\/p>\n
The trustees have confirmed that their position is that the \u00a32.3bn BCSSS investment reserve should be transferred to members as soon as possible, and that the government should commit to review how any future surplus in the BCSSS is shared between members and the government.<\/p>\n
John Musgrave, also of Hoyland, helped lead the demonstration last Friday morning.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe want to get justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf mineworkers have got their justice, then we should have ours.<\/p>\n
\u201cI blame our leaders of our pension scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should have been in when the mineworkers\u2019 gaffers put their claim in for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve sat back while everyone else was getting theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Peacock told the Chronicle that she met with Minister Jones last week.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cA number of people have been in touch regarding the BCSSS and the similarities with some of the injustices in the Mineworkers\u2019 Pension Scheme which Labour delivered on a few months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have met with the BCSSS Trustees both in my constituency office and in Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to the Minister responsible Sarah Jones, a number of times, most recently last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pleased that the Minister has met with the Trustees\u2019 to hear their concerns, and their proposals for reform, and had agreed to take them to the Treasury.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUSTICE: Richard and Gerald O\u2019Brien with John Musgrave outside Stephanie Peacock\u2019s office. A LOCAL MP has vowed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[8002,51,474,2499,12449,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-18837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-barnsley","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-personal-finance","12":"tag-stephanie-peacock","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114335585593909030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}