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^{CHAIRMAN'S UPDATE, NOVEMBER 2011
BTPF, Looking after you}

Hello Everyone 

May I offer to you, your families and friends, my best wishes for a truly lovely Christmas and for a successful and healthy 2012. 

During 2011 the BTPF national officers have continued to look after the interests of railway pensioners and deferred pensioners with regard to their pensions and travel facilities in what has been a difficult year for both. 

Pensions 

World Financial Markets remain very challenging, with several European nations on the verge of bankruptcy and others facing a double dip recession. Confidence is at an all-time low, making predictions for a safe haven for our pension assets very difficult. All pension funds are suffering and the Railway Pension Scheme (RPS) is no exception. 

This means that all pension funds with deficits must have an agreed recovery plan that closes the gap to meet the requirements of the Pension Committees/Trustees, the Actuary and indeed the Pension Regulator by the 31st March 2012. 

Deficit recovery plans are normally agreed following negotiations between the employer and trade unions representing employees. The deficit must be repaid within an approved number of years.

At this point it is worth drawing attention to the national debate caused by the government's decision that all public sector pensions (yes - that includes the RPS), state pensions and state benefits will be calculated and paid out using the Consumer Prices Index and not the traditional Retail Prices Index; this also means that all liabilities of the pension funds are now calculated using CPI. 

This method was used for the Railway Pension Scheme valuation held on 31st December 2010. The September 2011 rate of inflation for CPI (as announced in October) was 5.2% and this will be applied to the state pension increase, payable from April 2012 (rather than the 5.6% RPI rate that was announced for the same period). While we may anticipate the railway pension will also rise by 5.2% at the same time, we must all wait until the Secretary of State has issued the Statutory Notice in March in accordance with the 1971 Act.

Ken Ball MBE

Ken Ball devoted his retirement, which commenced in the late 1980s, to working continuously and tirelessly for the BTPF and for the benefit of our members; he spent periods as national secretary, pension board trustee and retired staff travel expert and he was a member of the BTPF team that took part in negotiations with government ministers to protect railway pensions and travel facilities at the time of privatisation. 

Ken continued to look after staff travel until very recently; unfortunately he was no longer able to attend meetings and he officially 'retired' from this role at the AGM in March 2011, due to declining health. 

On your behalf I have thanked Ken for his outstanding work and made a visit to him at home. 

It is with great sadness that I now have to report that Ken died in November, 2011.  His funeral took place on Thursday 1st December at Caversham, near Reading. If anyone wishes to make a donation 'In Memoriam', Ken's family have nominated Cancer Research.  Ken made a huge contribution to the work of the BTPF and will be greatly missed.

Travel Facilities 

Recently it was sadly announced that the RPMI Travel Section at Darlington will close from April 2012. 

Staff employed within the section have been informed that the Rail Staff Travel (RST) part of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) based in London will take the work back in-house. 

On behalf of BTPF members, I shall write to Fiona and her team at RPMI to thank them for the excellent way they have looked after pensioners over many years. It would be nice if we could all write or send a Christmas card. 

PLEASE NOTE: RPMI AT DARLINGTON WILL REMAIN THE PENSION ADMINISTRATOR FOR RAILWAY PENSIONS 
AND THE CONTACT NUMBERS FOR THIS WILL NOT CHANGE. 

Rail Staff Travel (RST) at ATOC are experienced in looking after travel for active rail industry staff; I would expect the handover to be completed efficiently and I shall be writing to Angela Nicholson, who is in charge at RST, with a view to helping the change to go smoothly. 

Introducing our new Travel Facilities representatives

Ian Clarke, a member of the Tyseley Branch, has agreed to take on the role of BTPF representative for retired travel and Keith Shenton from the Leeds branch has volunteered to work with Ian; knowing them as I do I am sure they will both contribute a tremendous amount. 

A major task for Ian and Keith will be to liaise with RST regarding the new arrangements for retired staff travel; I also believe that cooperation with the staff travel representatives of the Retired Railway Officers Society (RROS) would benefit both organisations with an exchange of information. 

Rail Industry Memorial at the NMA

For a Progress Report on the Rail Industry Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum, go to our News Page.

Many thanks for your continuing support - do have a lovely Christmas and I wish you good health throughout 2012.

Sam Reed
BTPF National Chairman

(revised) January 2012

You can contact Sam on 07534 196094 or by email

BTPF Recruitment

Can I make a personal appeal to you all to join the BTPF?

Please can all current members introduce their spouse / partner / friend to join as a member? After all they may well receive a rail pension as a dependant in future years. 

Do you know of someone who has recently retired or is about to retire from the transport industry? If you recruit just one or two people it would greatly help to maintain a membership of 20,000 plus and play a significant part in strengthening the BTPF position with retaining our very own representative on the Trustee Board of the Railway Pension Scheme.

Many BTPF branches also offer attractive social benefits

Many thanks for your continued support.

Sam Reed

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