"Every delay adds to that number": MPs demand miners' money
“We cannot see a justification for withholding money that belongs to scheme members alone”
Retired miners and their widows are dying while waiting for a pension settlement, coalfield MPs have warned John Healey.
In a joint letter, 17 MPs representing coalfield areas welcomed the decision to end surplus sharing and protected bonus pensions, but said it only addressed part of the injustice.
“We cannot see a justification for withholding money that belongs to scheme members alone,” they wrote.
The letter was led by Grahame Morris, chairman of the Labour MPs Group of Coalfields Communities, with signatories including Ian Lavery, Jon Trickett and Luke Akehurst.
They said lobbying by coalfield communities and their representatives had secured change in the 'eleventh hour'.
But their central demand remained the release of the existing fund.
The MPs acknowledged financial pressures on the Treasury, while urging Healey to honour promises made to former mining communities.
"Every week, an increasing number of aging retired miners and their widows die without seeing the settlement they fought for, and every delay adds to that number," they wrote.
They urged the Chancellor to release the money immediately and show mining families the government was on their side.