UK – The Department for Transport could be asked to pick up the tab for nine UK rail pension schemes with approximately 170,000 members, which are covered by a full crown guarantee.
A spokesperson for the department said: “On the basis of the most recent actuarial valuation, these crown guarantees are not expected to require any additional financing by the taxpayer.”
The DfT told IPE that these crown guarantees were given prior to 1997 “in order to facilitate a successful privatisation”.
The guarantees cover approximately 158,000 existing and deferred pensioners in the British Rail Pension Scheme, who were placed in a separate section of the ‘new’ Railways Pension Scheme (RPS) at the start of rail privatisation in 1994.
“The 1994 pensioners section has a 100% guarantee up to the position in 2000, and a guarantee for future index linked pensions increases,” a Railway Pensions Management spokesperson told IPE.
The government guarantee also covers roughly 12,000 members belonging to smaller funds, which have been closed to new entrants for a number of years.
These include the Great Western Railway Salaried Staff Widows’ and Orphans Pensions Society, the Salaried Staff Scheme and the BR 1974 Pension Fund, said the Railway Pensions Management spokesperson.
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