Steve Yemm column: Mansfield’s miners deserve the full justice they were promised
Since becoming Mansfield’s MP, securing justice for former mineworkers and their families has been one of my top priorities.
Mansfield has more members of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) and Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme (MPS) combined than any other constituency in the country.
For far too long, successive Governments failed to resolve the injustices surrounding these schemes.
I was determined that Mansfield’s former mineworkers would not be overlooked again.
This Government’s decision to transfer the Investment Reserve funds from the MPS and BCSSS, worth almost £4 billion in total, was therefore a hugely important breakthrough.
More than 5,000 former coal industry workers in Mansfield have benefited, with the value to local families running to well over £100m.
That is real money going back to people who earned it and it is an achievement I am proud to have fought for.
It shows what can be achieved when coalfield MPs, pension trustees, campaigners and a Labour Government work together.
But we should be clear, the job is not finished.
There remain important questions about existing and future surpluses within both pension schemes.
In recent weeks, the MPS and BCSSS trustees have put forward proposals aimed at ensuring that, where it is financially responsible to do so, future surpluses can benefit scheme members.
For families in Mansfield, this is not some technical debate about pension accounting.
It is about whether money generated by these pension funds should benefit the men and women whose working lives helped create them.
My dad, his brothers and my grandfather all worked in the industry.
Like thousands of families across Mansfield, mining is part of our story.
These men powered our homes and industries working in extraordinarily difficult, and often dangerous, conditions.
They paid into their pensions believing it would provide security in retirement.
They and their families have now spent decades campaigning for a fair settlement.
The Government has already demonstrated that longstanding injustices can be corrected.
Now, with the budget approaching, we have an opportunity to finish the job.
Former mineworkers should not have to wait another generation for justice.
We need a fair and sustainable settlement which ensures that future surpluses work for the people who earned them.
Mansfield’s miners have waited long enough.
I will not stop campaigning until the full justice they were promised is delivered.