MINEWORKERS - including many in Gwent and the rest of South Wales - have been “badly let down” by the UK government’s refusal to review the terms of the Mineworkers’ Pensions Scheme, says an MP.

Blaenau Gwent MP Nick Smith also vowed he and colleagues from other coalfield areas of the UK, will fight on to try to ensure mineworkers get a better deal.

The House of Commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee earlier this year describeds as “unconscionable” a situation in which the government has made billions from an agreement over the scheme made in the mid-1990s, while many members struggle to make ends meet.

More than half of the 152,000 retired miners in the Scheme receive less than £84 a week, with the government having received £4.4 billion.

Those billions have been transferred since 1994, after an arrangement by which 50 per cent of any surplus in the scheme at its privatisation would go to members’ pensions, while the other 50 per cent was put in an investment reserve, to be called on should a deficit arise.

It was further agreed that, to the extent these funds were not needed to maintain benefits, they were to be transferred to the government over time.

The committee’s report said it is “patently clear” the government has “unduly benefited”, and it is “untenable” for it to continue to argue that the arrangements remain fair.

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“Given the success of the scheme, and the vast sums... paid to the government, it is unconscionable that may of the scheme’s beneficiaries are struggling to make ends meet,” it states.

The government is also due to receive at least another £1.9 billion, on top of 50 per cent off any future surpluses.

The committee has called for a review of the arrangements, and is “disappointed by the government’s dismissive approach”.

It wants current arrangements replaced with a revised agreement “in which the government is only entitled to a share of surpluses if the scheme falls into deficit, and it has to provide funds”.

It also wants the 50:50 replaced with “a more appropriate arrangement”, and believes pensioners should also receive “a more immediate uplift”, recommending the government hands back to miners the £1.2 billion it is due to receive from the Investment Reserve.

But the government has not accepted the committee’s recommendations on changes to the agreement, saying the sums it receives should be welcomed as a “sign of the success of the arrangements”.

A UK Government response to the recommendations adds: “Scheme members have also benefited to a greater extent that expected, and that success should be welcomed.

“The government does not accept that the [scheme’s] trustees had no choice about the government proposal in 1994. We note that if the trustees did not think the 50-50 offer was a reasonable one, they could have declined the offer of the guarantee at that time.

“The government continues to believe that the arrangement agreed in 1994 was fair and beneficial to both scheme members and taxpayers. Scheme members have rightly shared in the benefits but the government has taken on all the risk.”

Mr Smith however, said: “The thousands of pensioners who deserve a fairer deal have been let down badly, but my fellow Labour coalfield MPs and I will not give up this fight.”

“Trustees, mineworkers and others gave detailed evidence and the committee’s suggestions were fair and reasonable. Instead of taking these on board, the government has provided a thin and shallow response,” he said.

“The government has collected billions from the pension scheme, while many miners are surviving on a pension of just £84 a week. Yet the government continues to argue that this is fair.

“Everybody had already accepted that the guarantee has proved worthwhile, but keeping the guarantee and helping pensioners are both possible. The secretary of state has missed this opportunity.

“The Treasury accepts it has benefited to a far greater extent than expected, but is still unwilling to share its windfall with pensioners.”