MP welcomes mining pension funds release

A DECISION after a long campaign to award a group of former coal mine workers access to their pension scheme’s investment reserve has been welcomed by local MP David Mundell. Mr Mundell has long lobbied on behalf of constituents for ‘just and equal’ treatment for ex-employees in the previous nationalised industry who were members of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS). The accumulated reserve fund worth £2.3 billion has been administered by the UK Treasury as part of a long-standing arrangement designed to ensure pre-privatisation mine workers’ pension payments would rise with inflation backed by Government guarantee. Funds from another separate industry pension scheme had previously been released by the UK Government, strengthening calls for equal treatment for the BCSSS members. Mr Mundell took up the cause a number of years ago on behalf local scheme members, retired mineworkers living in the Upper Nithsdale and South Lanarkshire, former coal mining areas of his constituency. Along with Westminster colleagues, other campaigners and pension trustees, he this week enthusiastically welcomed the UK ministerial commitment to release the fund to the pension scheme, which should, in turn, provide significantly higher pension payments to surviving members. Mr Mundell commented this week: “These achievements are never easy wins, they are hard-fought gains made possible only through the tireless dedication of thousands of people working together towards a shared goal. “Everyone who worked in the coal industry deserves to see this long-standing injustice finally put right. I’m delighted and that BCSSS pensioners in my constituency will now receive an uplift to their pensions.”