{"id":310755,"date":"2025-11-27T18:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/310755\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T18:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:32:16","slug":"victory-as-budget-promises-mineworkers-pension-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/310755\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Victory’ as Budget promises mineworkers’ pension cash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Former mineworkers Dave Drury, Peter Short, Brian Gent and Martin Slater have welcomed the news<\/p>\n

Anna WhittakerNottingham political reporter <\/p>\n

Former mineworkers in Nottinghamshire have claimed victory after the chancellor announced she will release their surplus pension fund money.<\/p>\n

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced on Wednesday that members of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS)<\/a> will receive \u00a32.3bn, which has been held by the government since 1994.<\/p>\n

Watching the Budget at a pub in Warsop, ex-mineworkers said they had got “justice”, and paid tribute to members of the scheme who have died waiting for the announcement.<\/p>\n

More than 8,850 of the scheme’s members live in the East Midlands. Mansfield has the highest number of members in the country, followed by Sherwood Forest.<\/p>\n

Reeves announced in last year’s Budget<\/a> that members of the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme (MPS) would receive extra payments, but at the time nothing was guaranteed for BCSSS members.<\/p>\n

The BCSSS fund includes ex-miners as members along with people who held other roles in the industry.<\/p>\n

In the Budget speech this week, Reeves said: “I will transfer the investment reserve fund of the BCSSS to its members so that the men and women who worked in our coal industry get a fair deal in their retirement too.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Drury worked at the pit from the age of 16<\/p>\n

Former miner Dave Drury, who started work at Welbeck Colliery in Mansfield when he was 16, watched the Budget at his pub, the Black Market.<\/p>\n

“We’ve finally got justice,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Every penny in that scheme is from our wages and employer contributions.<\/p>\n

“It’s a victory that we’ve got it returned but we are still bitter.”<\/p>\n

Speaking of the members who have died, he added: “It’s sad that they never got to receive pensions that they deserved.”<\/p>\n

Mansfield’s Labour MP Steve Yemm has campaigned on the issue since his election last year.<\/p>\n

“This is so important to me, my family worked in the industry and I absolutely understand when the former mineworkers say they want justice in their pensions,” he said.<\/p>\n

“For me it could never come soon enough. They paid into this scheme year after year, doing one of the hardest jobs you could imagine. <\/p>\n

“It’ll mean a 50% increase into their pension, and I believe it will be backdated for a year. The trustees will be looking to get that to them as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

Peter Short, a former mineworker who worked at Bilsthorpe, Harworth and Thoresby mines, said he was “delighted” by the news.<\/p>\n

He went to London last week with fellow former mineworkers to call on the government to release the funds.<\/p>\n

He said: “It’s a fight for justice. Something which should’ve happened many years ago.<\/p>\n

“When the announcement was made, I was quite emotional about it, not just for me, but for so many people who will benefit from this increase.”<\/p>\n

Of the roughly 40,000 BCSSS members, about 40% are women.<\/p>\n

Kim Smith, who worked at the Coal Board, based in Mansfield, said: “I was emotional when she made the announcement, because we have been working on it for such a long time.<\/p>\n

“It’s such a relief, it is going to make a massive difference.”<\/p>\n

She also credited the national BCSSS Facebook group, which has almost 5,000 members, and encouraged people to lobby their MP on the issue.<\/p>\n

Cheryl Agius, chairwoman of trustees of the BCSSS, said: “This is a historic moment – the result of a year of determination, advocacy and collaboration – and it marks a turning point for the Scheme.<\/p>\n

“The Scheme is now working hard to increase their pensions, and we hope to do this before the end of the year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC Former mineworkers Dave Drury, Peter Short, Brian Gent and Martin Slater have welcomed the news Anna WhittakerNottingham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-310755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}