top of page
Now there is an opportunity to put things right, equitable to all parties
Pensioners_edited_edited.jpg

One solution

​Fortunately, despite all that has happened, there is a real opportunity to resolve the AEAT pension scandal which: 

  • allows the government to do (and be seen doing) the right thing 

  • does not involve any taxpayers' money

  • would be straightforward to implement

  • follows precedents set for other, similar pension schemes 

The solution involves:​

  1. Leaving PPF (reducing PPF liabilities by £163M)

  2. Restoring our past losses (£68M)

  3. Rejoining the UKAEA pension scheme (future liabilities £320M)

  4. Paying additional income tax at basic rate (£78M)

Our financial model shows that the net cost of this solution is £147M = (2)+(3)-(1)-(4).  This is tiny compared with the pension scheme money the government kept at privatisation, which is now worth about £1000M.

​​

Two parliamentary select committees have said that we deserve resolution.  Independent arbitration (guided by actuarial advice) is surely the way forward.

It's a perfectly reasonable and affordable solution!

The money which the government had promised to UKAEA pension scheme members before privatisation, but did not transfer into the AEAT scheme at that time, is now worth more than enough to fund AEAT pensions in full. 

The government has recently made transfers of several £Bn into Coal Board Managers' pensions, even though (unlike us) those pensioners are already receiving their full promised pensions!​​

Why should government do this?

  • It would show that recent statements of Labour government values by the former Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury were not just empty words.

  • ​They would be respecting the carefully considered, impartial findings of the NAO and the two select committees.

  • It will not cost the taxpayer anything.

  • They would be tackling injustice and doing the RIGHT THING​!

This government “will be the catalyst for a changed culture in the public sector, improve transparency and accountability, change the culture of defensiveness in the public sector and make sure the public is truly at the heart of the public sector.”  
 
The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
8 July 2024
Precedents for this action

  1. In 2025 the government announced a 'carve-out', boosting British Coal managers' pensions by 40% with £2.3bn of pension money which the government had retained at privatisation in 1994.  Note that the government also kept more than half the pension money when AEAT was privatised in 1996.  Why are they not returning it to us?    

  2. In 2013 the government introduced its 'Fair Deal for Pensions', allowing transferred employees to stay in their Public Sector Pension Scheme - this is the FAIR DEAL. They disdainfully tell us they've done this to ensure that our case could not happen again, without doing anything to correct the injustice we are suffering!​​

  3. After the introduction of the government's 'Fair Deal' policy in 2013, it was agreed that 1500 ex-civil servants in the private sector Babcock Naval Services Pension Scheme would rejoin the Civil Service Pension Scheme.  They had been transferred to Babcock in 2002.  The transfer back was completed in 2019.   

  4. AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment) employees originally had a scheme similar to (in fact, derived from) the UKAEA scheme.  In 1993, AWE staff and their pensions were transferred to the private sector.  In 2022 the government granted a Crown guarantee to the private company scheme.  

Why our case is exceptional

  • Before privatisation, government gave us, and parliament, assurances on our pension security.​​

  • The AEA Act 1995 required the new pension provisions to be "no less favourable".  They were not, because the UKAEA provisions included a government guarantee; the AEAT scheme did not.

  • The unique 1996 Note we received from the Government Actuary advised us not to consider the security of the new AEAT pension scheme, in making our decisions. They presented the UKAEA and AEAT schemes as equivalent, even though the latter would have no Treasury guarantee - a crucial fact they failed to mention!

  • No ombudsman is permitted to investigate this.  Historic legislation prevents them.

  • The National Audit Office produced an independent factual report on AEAT pensions in 2023. 

  • Based on this, the Public Accounts Committee concluded "Civil servants who transferred their pensions to AEA Technology were badly informed by the government at the time, with some losing considerable sums."

  • The Works and Pensions Committee agreed, and said that the government should ensure "an adequate means of redress" for AEAT pensioners.    

bottom of page