Easington MP Grahame Morris expressed his disappointment at the government’s refusal to support former mineworkers and their widows during the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter to Grahame Morris MP, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy rejected proposals for a one-off payment from the Mineworkers Pension Scheme.

Grahame Morris MP is campaigning for the government to change the surplus sharing arrangements to give former miners and their widows a greater share of the pension fund’s investment returns.

Following receipt of the letter, Mr Morris said:

“For their entire working lives, mineworkers contributed to a pension scheme to give themselves and their families financial security in retirement.

Coalfield communities live with a legacy of ill health associated with heavy industry. Too many miners like my father and grandfather never received their full pension benefit, with their lives cut short due to industrial disease. The respiratory diseases prevalent in mining community leaves ex-miners exposed to greater risk if they contract Covid-19.

A one-off coronavirus payment would help former miners and their dependents at this difficult time. The government could also support former mineworkers and their widows by addressing the historic injustice of the surplus sharing arrangement and allow them to receive the full benefit of the surpluses in the Mineworkers Pension Fund that they paid into in full.”