Chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves announced in the UK Budget today that the government will pay out the surplus in the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) in the pensions of former mineworkers.
The government will transfer the Investment Reserve Fund in the BCSSS to the scheme’s trustees. This will be paid out as an additional pension to members of the scheme, the government confirmed.
This latest decision by the chancellor will see £1.97bn (€2.24bn) transferred to BCSSS this year, with further payments made over the next five financial years.
The move comes as members of parliament (MPs) and former staff have been calling for the release of £2.3bn held in reserves by the government and so far kept back from the BCSSS.
During her Budget speech, Reeves said she had made the decision to meet their demands after pressure from Labour MPs in Bassetlaw, Mansfield, Barnsley South, Blyth and Ashington and Merthyr.
She said: “I will transfer the investment reserve fund of the BCSSS to its members so that the men and women who worked in our coal industry get a fair deal in their retirement too.”
The pension scheme began in 1947 but, following the privatisation of the coal industry in 1994, the government became a guarantor for the BCSSS.
Under that deal, the government was entitled to half of the surplus money but nothing has been taken since 2015 when that agreement ended.
According to a parliamentary briefing, between October 1994 and July 2024, the government has received £4.8bn from the MPS and £3.1bn from the BCSSS.
The pension fund has about 40,000 members, including up to 5,000 women and widows of former miners.
At last year’s Budget, it was announced that a similar investment reserve, the Mineworkers Pension Scheme, would be released to pensioners.
That meant £1.5bn was transferred, leading to an average weekly increase of £29 for members.
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