The Pension Surplus Scandal
During the period 1989 to 1998, Actuarial Reviews of the RO Pension Fund showed the following "surplus" funding situations:-
| 1989 | £144million |
| 1992 | £93 million |
| 1995 | £84 million |
| 1998 | £26 million |
Between each Review the Company proposed ways to spend these alleged surpluses ( see Inland Revenue comments ) and the Trustees agreed. The Trustees never put forward any spending proposals of their own. This is how the money was used -
- The Employer was allocated £119.8M (55%) for the reduction or cessation of pension fund contributions and also benefitted by being able to fund redundancies as early retirements (23%).
- The in service members, i e those currently employed, benefitted by receiving a reduction or cessation of pension contributions (13%).
- Minor adjustments were also made to pensions by improving the dependants provision from 1/2 to 2/3 in the Crown Service scheme and some harmonisation of minor differences between the different sections of the scheme (9%).
In the light of subsequent developments we believe that the disposal of these alleged "surpluses" was ill-advised. We noted that no improvements at all were allocated to pensions already in payment. The distribution was grossly unfair.