MPs lobby for better miners' pension deal

Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper is joining other politicians, including Wakefield's Mary Creagh, to lobby for a better pension deal for the retired pit workers.

A deal made more than two decades ago meant any surplus money made by the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme would be split between the scheme members and the Government.

But ministers have admitted that while over £3bn in surplus has been taken by the Government, no payments have been made into the scheme.

Yvette Cooper said: “We’ve a long mining history that only ended in 2015 when the Government refused to help us save Kellingley Colliery.

“I’ve been working with the NUM and ex-miners to look at the issue of the MPS and that’s why we’re asking the Government to agree that money earned by the scheme should now go back into it, rather than to treasury coffers.

“With no new miners and no mining jobs to go to, ex-miners need to be sure of the best possible pensions to support them and their families.

“That would be a much fairer deal for miners in communities like ours that worked in difficult, dangerous jobs for many years.

“It’s already paid £3bn in since 1994 - there is no justification for it carrying on like this, it’s just not fair on retired miners who are losing out.”