Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> Pensions >> 2003 pension increase http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1044822480 Message started by Forum Admin on Feb 9^th, 2003, 8:28pm

Title: 2003 pension increase
Post by Forum Admin on Feb 9^th, 2003, 8:28pm

BBC pensioners will get an extra 2.9 per cent this April.

This is equal to the rise in the Retail Price Index for the calendar year ending December 2002.

Pensioners will get individual letters spelling out what this means for them, towards the end of March.

In a glossy brochure sent to all pensioners, the Trustees say they "understood the disappointment that many pensioners felt" over the 0.7 per cent increase awarded last year.

They say they "considered carefully" whether to pay any increase over and above RPI this year.

The brochure says: ""Each 1 per cent increase above RPI would cost an extra £40 million and the BBC cannot increase pensions above the level promised without taking into account the long-term implications.

"...It has concluded that a further rise on top of the inflation-linked increase guaranteed under the Rules of the Scheme cannot be justified."

But contributions to the scheme are to be increased over the next two years for the BBC itself and for members currently contributing.

On the 1st April this year, and on the same date for the following two years, the BBC will contribute an extra half of one per cent of pensionable salary per active member.

This will take the BBC's contribution to 6 per cent of pensionable salary.

Each active member will pay an extra half of one per cent on April 1st 2004, and a similar increase the following year, taking the employee's contribution to five-point-five per cent.

All of this is calculated to prevent the scheme's current nominal surplus from running out by 2007.