Neither
of these are easy choices. A key role of all pension committees and
trustees is to ensure that the pension fund is viable and that it will
remain viable to meet all future liabilities. High contribution rates can
cause members with young families to withdraw from the fund; this becomes
a "disaster waiting to happen" for both the pension fund and
possibly for the individual on reaching retirement age.
CPI
versus RPI?
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.
 | Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Spring/Summer 2011 message in 'document' format to
circulate to members via your Newsletter. |
 | Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Autumn 2010 message in 'document' format to
circulate to members via your Newsletter. |
 | Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Summer 2010 message in 'document' format to
circulate to members via your Newsletter. |
 | Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Autumn/Winter 2009/10 message in 'document' format to
circulate to members via your Newsletter. |
 | Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Summer 2009 message in 'document' format to
circulate to members via your Newsletter. |
 | Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Winter 2008/9 message in 'document' format to
circulate to members via your Newsletter. |
 |
Click
here to download Sam Reed's Summer 2008 message in 'document' format
to circulate to members via your Newsletter |
 |
Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Autumn/Winter 2007/8 message in 'document' format to circulate to members
via your Newsletter. |
 |
Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Spring 2007 message in 'document' format to
circulate to members via your Newsletter |
 |
Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Autumn/Winter 2006 message in 'document' format to circulate to members
via your Newsletter |
 |
Click
here
to download Sam Reed's Summer 2006 message in 'document' format to circulate to members
via your Newsletter |
 |
Click
here
to download Peter Rayner's New Year 2006 message in 'document' format to circulate to members
via your Newsletter |
 |
Click
here
to download Peter Rayner's November 2005 message in 'document' format to circulate to members
via your Newsletter |
 |
Click
here
to download Peter Rayner's July 2005 message in 'document' format to circulate to members
via your Newsletter |
 |
Click
here
to download "Abolition of Central Trains: What happens to current
and deferred pensioners?" |
 | Click
here
for a copy of the paper presented by the NPC to the Department of
Transport (September 2005) |
 | Click
here
for a copy of the Pensioners' Charter |
 |
Click
here
to download a report of the Concessionary Fares Conference (6 May 03), attended
by Peter in his capacity as National Pensioners' Convention delegate. This
conference addressed the subject of free/concessionary bus travel for all
pensioners. |