Ex-mineworkers 'dying while waiting for pension cash'

Former miner Dave Drury said ex-workers did not have time to wait

Several former mineworkers have expressed anger after a senior minister said they would have to wait until later this year to find out if they will receive some of the surplus money in their pension scheme.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in last year's Budget members of the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme (MPS) would receive extra payments.

She said it would mean "working people who powered our country receive the fair pension they are owed".

But there was no mention of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS), which includes ex-miners as members along with people who held other roles in the industry.

Speaking to BBC East Midlands Today, the chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, indicated there would be an announcement in the next Budget, saying "we'll be able to say more towards the end of the year".

'We don't have time'

But former miner Dave Drury, who worked at Welbeck Colliery in Nottinghamshire, said he was angry at the minister's comments.

"It's just somebody sat down with a pen who just needs to sign that off," he said.

"Probably 2,000 miners a year are dying of old age and respiratory mining-related diseases.

"They ain't got time to wait. It's six-a-day I think it works out at. So whoever's got the pen, get it signed."

After 14 years at the coalface, Mr Drury became a training officer for a year and his pension was transferred from the MPS to the BCSSS.

"We were all fighting together, but I do think it's as simple as someone's looked down at a piece of paper and seen 'mineworkers' pensions' and they've added the word 'scheme' on the end," he said.

"And adding that word 'scheme' has excluded the BCSSS."

Member Kim Smith said the BCSSS was losing up to six members a day

Of the roughly 40,000 BCSSS members, about 40% are women.

Kim Smith, who worked at the Coal Board, based in Mansfield, said: "It's not government money, it's not taxpayers' money, it's the scheme members' money and we'll like that money back to improve our standard of living.

"We're losing five or six members a day so every day that this gets dragged out more people are not going to benefit and I don't think that's fair."

Mansfield's Labour MP Steve Yemm – whose constituency contains the highest number of BCSSS members in the country – also questioned why it was taking so long.

"This requires a signature by a civil servant to sign over the reserve, and I can't really understand why it would take any length of time to do that," he said.

Yemm was one of 41 Labour MPs from coalfield constituencies who wrote a letter to Darren Jones in January, warning "the matter of securing pension justice for mining communities remains incomplete".

"We urge you to prioritise this issue and address it without delay," they added.

Darren Jones argued there were various issues still to be resolved.

He said: "You've got to do the work around how much money is in the scheme, how much is guaranteed for pensioners, what's the risk profile.

"All of those conversations for the Mineworkers' Pensions Scheme had happened before the election…which is why we could move quickly."

Jones confirmed that the government was in "active conversations" with the BCSSS trustees and asked if that meant there would be an announcement in the next Budget, he said: "That would be a time to pay attention, yes."