PENSIONS UPDATE ...
(... as of 20.04.21)
From Captain Mike Post
'Dear All
You may recall that on 18 February I wrote to the Chancellor, the Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, to make the case that the method of calculating the RPI should not be changed in 2030 without compensation.
Since then I have seen numerous letters that Mr Sunak has written to MPs enquiring on behalf of their constituents but none of Mr Sunak’s letters address the potential dishonourable behaviour of the Government if it carries out its threat to proceed.
However, Mr Sunak has not seen fit to answer or even acknowledge the letter and documents which I sent him over two months ago. I have therefore this afternoon sent resent him the original documents by recorded delivery and have sent the letter below as a covering letter.
I wonder when or if I shall receive a reply.
The Government must be desperately hoping that the Judicial Review launched by the BT, Ford and M&S pension scheme Trustees fails.
Regards to All
Mike Post '
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' 20 April 2021
Dear Mr Sunak
The Government’s Proposal to Default on its RPI Debt Obligations in 2030
I wrote to you over two months ago on 18 February 2021 on the topic of the Government’s proposal to default on its RPI debt obligations in 2030. I have neither received a reply to my letter and enclosures nor even an acknowledgement of its receipt. I am therefore resending the letter and enclosures by recorded delivery and look forward to receiving a reply which actually addresses the issues which I have raised. I have noted that in the letters that you have written to MPs on the topic you have avoided addressing the issue of the dishonourable behaviour of the Government. You also failed to point out to your MP correspondents that 257 of the 550 written responses to the pre-change consultation came from British Airways pensioners.
Meanwhile, on 10 April, Patrick Hosking, well-respected Financial Editor of The Times wrote in a stark op-ed that your behaviour amounts to “robbery” of pensioners. This is a judgment with which many elderly British Airways staff would agree. A female BA ground worker who joined the Airways Pension Scheme (APS) in 1984 shortly before it was closed, who accepted the Government-backed promise that her pension would be protected by unlimited RPI increases and who is set to retire on or around 2030 will have paid 53% higher pension contributions during her whole working life only to have her pension protection materially dishonoured by a change in the way the RPI is calculated at the point of her retirement. She will have been robbed. I enclose Patrick Hosking’s article for your information.
I look forward to receiving a reply from you which addresses the issues which I have raised in my communication of 18 February. I will email a copy of this letter to my own MP, the Rt Hon Theresa May.
Yours sincerely
Captain Mike Post'