Ex-miners to attend pension fund rally

Former miners from around the UK have been invited to the meeting at Mansfield library on Thursday, April 6.

So far speakers are expected to include John Heathfield the scheme secretary at Coal Pension Trustees Services, Mansfield mayor Kate Allsop and Tosh McDonald, general secretary of trade union Aslef, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen.

Former Thoresby Colliery miner Mick Newton, a Nottinghamshire representative for The UK Mineworkers Pension Association for Justice and Fair Play, said: “We are holding the rally to shine a light on what is happening with our pension and to keep everybody in the picture.

“It will allow members of our scheme to have their say and to direct questions so we can make our case clearer.”

Former miners around the UK say it is a injustice that the Government has made billions of pounds from their pension fund. Under a deal made in the 1990s, the Government agreed to underwrite the pension, but in return take half of the surplus each year, with £750 million paid into Government coffers last year alone.

The association is campaigning to get the 50/50 split of mineworkers pension surplus renegotiated.

Ashfield MPs Gloria De Piero, Mansfield MP Sir Alan Meale and National Union of Mineworkers national secretary Chris Kitchen, have signed a letter, which asks the trustees of the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme to review the scheme’s surplus sharing arrangement.