{"id":290189,"date":"2025-11-29T19:23:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290189\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:23:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:23:25","slug":"sunderland-ex-mineworker-elated-by-pension-cash-announcement-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290189\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunderland ex-mineworker ‘elated’ by pension cash announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Scott,in Sunderlandand<\/p>\n

Evie Lake,North East and Cumbria<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Scott\/BBC<\/p>\n

Stuart Porthouse said he was “elated” at the news<\/p>\n

A former mineworker said he was “elated” when the government announced it will share out surplus pension fund money held for over 30 years.<\/p>\n

Stuart Porthouse from Sunderland, who spent 32 years working at five collieries in north-east England, said Rachel Reeves’ Budget announcement that members of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) will receive \u00a32.3bn will allow people to “enjoy the rest of their lives”.<\/p>\n

The cash has been held by the government since 1994 when the mining industry was privatised.<\/p>\n

Ian Lavery, Labour MP for Blyth and Ashington and a former president of the National Union of Mineworkers, said it was “fantastic news”.<\/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 latter scheme includes miners and others who worked across the industry such as engineers, draftsmen and canteen workers.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Scott\/BBC<\/p>\n

Ian Lavery said former mine workers “deserved a lot better”<\/p>\n

Mr Porthouse, who had worked his way up to chief engineer in his mining career and had paid into the scheme until 1994, said the money always belonged to the workers.<\/p>\n

On the Budget announcement, he said: “[I was] elated, I was really happy, not so much just for myself because I was chief engineer so I wasn’t the lowest paid person in the scheme. <\/p>\n

“It’s been very difficult because the average age of BCSSS is 77 and most of us have illnesses related to mining and suffer from it.<\/p>\n

“Any money that people get is going to help them to enjoy the rest of their lives.”<\/p>\n

Responding to the announcement, Lavery said: “People who gave their all in the mining industry, who built these communities, deserved a lot better.<\/p>\n

“This in many ways is the miner’s deferred wages. <\/p>\n

“People deserve the money and, you know what, they could do with the money in these hard times.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Scott,in Sunderlandand Evie Lake,North East and Cumbria Jim Scott\/BBC Stuart Porthouse said he was “elated” at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-290189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}