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From the Message Board - 18 to 25 SeptemberPosted by Chas Tyler on 18 September 2000 at 20:23:05: I have written the following letter to my MP today:- The Rt. Hon. David Liddington, M.P. 18 September 2000 Dear Mr Liddington,
Charles Tyler
Posted by Roger Burtenshaw on 21 September 2000 at 10:14:20:
I have written the following letter to MP for Havant today:- The Rt. Hon. David Willetts, M.P. In the USA, IBM is receiving very poor press as a result
of its callous raiding of its current employees pension funds, here IBM appears to be
raiding the future pension increases of all its retirees and most employees with more
than 5 years service. I am writing to you to ask if you are aware that a pressure group has been formed to
present the case to the ombudsman and the controlling body for pension funds. For the current state of the issues please refer to the website:
http://www.gpsu.co.uk/cplan/
Posted by Richard Phillips on 02 October 2000 at 00:48:32: I have last week sent the following letter to my MP. Having read all the stuff on the Web Site, I realise that my description of what has been happening is not completely accurate, but I think it's close enough. I have not yet had a response. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Mates MP September 26, 2000 Dear Mr Mates In 1991, along with many others, a good number of whom will live in East Hampshire, I retired from IBM under an early retirement arrangement when they were reducing their workforce dramatically. Under its terms, I was not entitled to regular pension increments, but we were told that the scheme was and would continue to be funded by the company to permit discretionary annual increments at 70% of the prevailing Retail Prices Index. There was a history of such payments, the company was then perceived as being benevolent towards its retired employees, and this was mentioned frequently in the process of persuading us to retire early, though the discretionary nature of the increases was emphasised. For a few years this was the pattern of increments. However, all that has changed with a change of management in he USA, where the firm is based. Lately, the "70% of RPI" increases have been appearing at 18 month intervals, which means the real value of the pension has started to fall more quickly. In the 1990s the law on pensions was changed, and the company was obliged to start offering its employees a pension which was guaranteed to increase in payment at 100% of RPI. Its response was to close the C-Plan to new entrants, and to start a new scheme for current and future employees, the M-Plan, which complied with the new legal requirement. They did not, though, set up a new pension fund to undertake the new obligation, but instead the contributions to the new scheme are paid into the same fund as were the C-Plan contributions, and the same fund is to be used to pay the new, inflation-proof, pensions. Worse still, the company is raiding the surplus in the fund in order to pay its enhanced contributions to the new scheme. So I am losing out in two ways: The surplus built up using past employee contributions including mine is being used to pay inflation-proof pensions to others, but not to me, and to cover the cost of providing them. The 'surplus' is being rapidly exhausted. My own pension is at the same time shrinking in value at a greater rate than I was led to expect. I gather that IBM is not the only firm which is taking this disgraceful line. Would you be so kind as to raise this matter in parliament, please? In particular, would you press for a change in the law to oblige employers to use surpluses in pension funds to provide inflation-proofing for existing pensioners in addition to current and new employees when they retire, and before those surpluses are used as an excuse for employer 'contribution holidays' or raided for other purposes? Meanwhile, with a group of other IBM pensioners, I am exploring ways to use the existing law to force the company to behave more ethically correctly, and your support would be much appreciated. At a time when there is a clear move in all political parties to ensure that everyone has a worthwhile personal pension in addition to the state pension with a view to reducing the cost to the public purse of the latter, a new class of people is about to be created who thought they had made such provision but will have been cheated of it. Some of them may unnecessarily become a charge on the public purse in the future as a result. This is very urgent. Thank you for your attention
Posted by Roger Burtenshaw on 16 October 2000 at 10:55:37: I have had the following response from my MP, David Willets. Thank you for your letter of 21 September about the IBM pension fund. I understand your frustration with the transfer of funds from the defined benefit scheme to a defined contribution one for current workers. Pensioners with an occupational pension scheme have a right to expect fair treatment and a decent income they should not feel they are losing out to younger people. The legislation surrounding pension funds is extremely complicated and the case is now in the
hands of the Pensions Ombudsman. I have written to the Ombudsman asking him to keep me informed
of the progress of his investigation and will contact you again when I receive a reply.
CC of letter by David Willets to Pensions Ombudsman Dr Julian Farrand
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