Ayrshire campaigner Pat Kennedy is preparing to take her fight against a historic pensions 'injustice' to the House of Lords later this month. She is making a last-ditch attempt to claw back cash for affected pensioners.
Pat, from Coylton, is a member of the HPPA UK (Hewlett Packard Pensioners Association), which has grown and become the Pre-97 Pension Justice Alliance. The group represents a coalition of pension groups from multiple companies around the country.
Campaign claims significant hardship
The campaigners claim they have faced 'significant hardship' over the last two decades or more due to changes in their pension plans. They say their pension pots have been massively reduced from their pre-1997 contributions because legislation only index-linked contributions from '97. They want the companies involved to 'make good' on the value of the pensions which are supposed to provide financial security.
In Ayrshire, the issue has a direct bearing on the former employees of UK Digital Equipment Corporation. The firm employed people at their plant at Mosshill Industrial Estate, Ayr, between 1977 and 2002, until it was wound down by new owners Hewlett Packard. In 1998, Digital Equipment merged with Compaq, and in 2001 that organisation, in turn, merged with Hewlett Packard. In 2015, Hewlett Packard split, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise took over responsibility for the Digital pension scheme.
Concerns over surplus extraction
It is estimated that around 1,500 people across the Ayrshire region could be affected by massive pension reductions. In April, the new Pension Schemes Act 2026 was given Royal Assent. It gave companies and trustees in Defined Benefit pension schemes a 'new freedom' to release an estimated £160 billion in surplus funds to employers. However, the concern from campaigners is that many schemes will be converted into insurance policies through 'buy-out deals' that lock in employers' surplus gains, but without sharing them with the pensioners whose payments helped create them.
Pat is now taking a delegation to the House of Lords on Monday, November 16, in an event sponsored by Baroness Ros Altmann. It is hoped that the campaigners can still convince the UK Government that the new pensions bill, set to be enacted in April 2027, has a written obligation to the pre-1997 pension 'victims.'
Campaigners seek written obligation
Pat said: "Barack Obama has used the phrase 'the last best chance' and that's what I would say this is- our last best chance. We want to pull together a well-supported cross-party message to the Secretary of State (Pat McFadden) and the Minister (Torsten Bell) that will shape the secondary legislation of the Bill. The new Pensions Bill will be in place by April and when it becomes live, schemes will have the possibility of extracting surplus amounts in those pension pots, meaning firms can basically can take the money and run. Unless they are 'required' and not 'guided' it won't do anything for us and our campaign."
She added: "For more than a quarter of a century, our pensions have been frozen while these schemes built up surpluses. Now that surplus is being unlocked - but there's nothing in the law that says any of it has to come to us. Companies can convert our schemes into insurance and walk away without giving pensioners a penny of what we're owed. We're not asking for a handout. We're asking for a fair share of money that exists partly because our pensions were held back for 25 years. In order to satisfy our campaign the firms involved must be required to make good on our pension shortfalls. That's what we're fighting for. Basically we need some words baked into the secondary legislation that requires companies to pay up on the pre-1997 pensions."
So far, the campaign has 132 MPs on their side. Now they need a figurehead that will take the fight directly to the Pensions Minister. Pat said: "We need three things; the first relates to the surplus. The surplus has to be used first to upgrade pre-1997 pensions. Secondly, we need to pause extraction, pause any change to the scheme until the pre-97 issue is settled. And third, we require indexation to be baked in from now on, which is what's been missing all along. Our delegation is not a big delegation, but it's a well-armed delegation."
Minister responds to concerns
Pensions Minister Torsten Bell said in Parliament earlier this month: "Trustees need to be in the driving seat. Employers will have no direct access to a scheme's surplus. The flexibilities we have put in place through the Pension Schemes Act 2026 and the guidance being provided by the Pensions Regulator are already changing the nature of the discussion between trustees and employers, and will lead to a step change in this area."
However, Pat added: "If the Bill goes through the way it is right now, I hate to say it, but it's Robert Maxwell 2.0."
