‘People are dying’, say ex-miners waiting for pension cash

Of the roughly 40,000 BCSSS members, about 40% are women.

Kim Smith, who worked at the Coal Board, based in Mansfield, said: “It’s not government money, it’s not taxpayers’ money, it’s the scheme members’ money and we’ll like that money back to improve our standard of living.

“We’re losing five or six members a day so every day that this gets dragged out more people are not going to benefit and I don’t think that’s fair.”

Mansfield’s Labour MP Steve Yemm – whose constituency contains the highest number of BCSSS members in the country – also questioned why it was taking so long.

“This requires a signature by a civil servant to sign over the reserve, and I can’t really understand why it would take any length of time to do that,” he said.

Yemm was one of 41 Labour MPs from coalfield constituencies who wrote a letter to Darren Jones in January, warning “the matter of securing pension justice for mining communities remains incomplete”.

“We urge you to prioritise this issue and address it without delay,” they added.

Darren Jones argued there were various issues still to be resolved.

He said: “You’ve got to do the work around how much money is in the scheme, how much is guaranteed for pensioners, what’s the risk profile.

“All of those conversations for the Mineworkers’ Pensions Scheme had happened before the election…which is why we could move quickly.”

Jones confirmed that the government was in “active conversations” with the BCSSS trustees and asked if that meant there would be an announcement in the next Budget, he said: “That would be a time to pay attention, yes.”