MINERS PENSION FUND SURPLUSES

Motion Text

That this House welcomes the Coalfield Communities Campaign report on the Miners Pension Funds and notes that every year the Treasury receives a multi-million pound windfall from the funds, which have an asset value in excess of £23 billion, under arrangements which were put in place by the Tory Government when the coal industry was privatised in 1994; and, in view of the modest risk that is now involved, asks Her Majesty's Government to adjust the division of the surpluses in a fairer way, leaving more for the 300,000 plus pensioners, 28,000 of whom receive less than £10 per week, and to plough back a larger proportion of what has been received into coalfield communities.