Miners fund their own illness payout
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Your support makes all the difference.Miners who won up to pounds 3.6bn in compensation for bronchitis and emphysema will fund a large chunk of their payout from their own pension funds, it emerged yesterday.
The Government will get a pounds 1.15bn bonus over the next 10 years from surpluses amassed by the miners' and British Coal staff pension schemes.
It was able to do this after taking over the schemes when the coal industry was privatised. Under arrangements made by the Conservatives, the Government will take 50 per cent of all future surpluses in return for guaranteeing pension payments.
Yesterday, Bleddyn Hancock, South Wales general secretary of the pit deputies' union Nacods, said the Government should hand back the money to miners and find the compensation from other sources. "It would be a despicable act if the miners have to pay for their own compensation," he said.
Between them, the Mine Workers' Pension Scheme and the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme have assets of more than pounds 20bn. Last year, the mine workers' scheme declared a surplus of pounds 1.5bn, half of which was taken by the Government. Now the staff scheme is to declare a surplus of more than pounds 750,000 which will also be split between pensioners and the Government.
Although the pensioners' payments are index-linked, Mr Hancock said the staff pensioners could have received a bonus of pounds 10 per week each on top of that from their scheme's surplus. Instead, they received just pounds 5.
Mr Hancock led the recent High Court battle for compensation for miners with chest diseases. Up to 100,000 former miners are likely to claim compensation after the judge found that the company, and the coal board before it, had been negligent in failing to take reasonable steps to minimise coal dust which triggered the diseases.
A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said the Government had actually paid pounds 2.5bn into the staff scheme over the past 40 years.
The Mine Workers' Pension Scheme had a guarantee from the Government, and "in return for that guarantee the Government shares with the beneficiaries any surpluses. If there is no surplus or if it is in deficit then the Government will have to fund that".
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