FORMER mine workers in Dumfries and Galloway are set to get a pension boost.
Across the UK, including locally, more than 100,000 former mineworkers will receive £1.5 billion of money that was kept from their pensions – meaning an extra £29 a week each.
The move has been welcomed by South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth, who said it “reverses the historic injustice affecting Dumfries and Galloway’s former coalminers.”
He explained that it dates back to the privatisation of British Coal in 1994, when the Government struck a deal that entitled it to half the surplus cash from the pension scheme in return for a guarantee that miners’ pensions would rise in line with inflation.
The scheme has continued to produce strong returns – meaning the UK government has received £4.8 billion over the last 30 years without paying any funds into it.
Former mineworkers and their families argued for decades that money should be in former miners’ pockets rather than the government’s coffers.
Now a landmark decision means the fund will be handed over to the pension scheme.
Mr Smyth said: “In Dumfriesshire, an area many may not associate with coal mines, deep mining was integral to the economy as far south as Canonbie and Rowanburn and more recently in Upper Nithsdale- – from the Fauldhead mine in Kirkconnel- the largest local pit until it closed in 1968 to the open casts, that continued until just a few years ago.
“Many of my own relatives worked in those Upper Nithsdale pits until the demise of the industry in the 1980s.
“I very much welcome this landmark decision. It’s right that the money is back in the pockets where it belongs.”
