Ex-miners paying out £13k
Old miners in Cannock have forked out an average of £13,000 to the Government as part of their pensions, say campaigners for retired workers in the town.
The figure has been calculated by the Cannock Chase Retired Miners and Officials Association which is fighting to get ministers to renegotiate the scheme after billions of pounds have been taken away from pensioners.
The money paid by each member goes to the Government under a deal which sees the Government guarantee the pension against it going insolvent.
In practice this has seen billions of pounds go into the Treasury while over 24,000 pensioners exist on £10 a week.
The association's report author, Mr Jack Snape, has identified the total amount of money paid by each scheme, which stands at over £2 billion from the Mineworkers Pension Scheme, or £7,953 per member, and over £2.4 billion from the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme at a cost of £32,285 per member.
This comes to an average of £13,102 for every member.
Mick Westwood, from the Cannock Miners Association, said: "We have been pressing for renegotiation of this agreement that allows the Government to take a 50 per cent share of any surplus.
"We are asking the Labour government to address the "broken promise" that they made to us in 1996 when they said the Conservatives had 'ripped the miners off'."
