SPOS and Pensions Feedback
Graham Smith
A
ells us.
t various times I have bemoaned the lack of information as to how our pensioner members are faring, and have asked that they write and
I am happy to say that we have recently had several etters but regret to report that they are not at all happy with either the amount of their pensions given the high exchange rates (especially during the last year) or the
mount of SPOS.
So far as SPOS is concerned, quite simply, they re not getting any. It comes as quite a shock to those ffected to find that our pensions are not so well rotected as we have been led to believe.
A synopsis of a few of the comments together with ome figures illustrating the problems has been prepared Ind is as follows.
Overseas Pensions Department, April 1991
"SPOS is designed to top up the value of any ncreases awarded by overseas governments to former Colonial Service pensioners to the same level as the ncreases paid to a Home Civil Service counterpart who eceives a basic pension of equivalent sterling value”.
PJ retired in 1982
"Since retirement the purchasing power of my HK ension in the UK has fallen by 22%. Currently my POS covers less than 2% of the deficiency.
A UK civil servant's index-linked pension would ave maintained the same purchasing power as when he etired and yet Mr. Francis Maude has stated that HK ensioners do "reasonably well" compared with their JK counterparts.
There is now widespread dissatisfaction amongst HK pensioners".
VF retired April 1984
"SPOS ..... the administrative arrangements are robably satisfactory but the supplement is certainly not.
the $HK/$US link. Pensioners ..... should not ave to face the worry at the end of each month as to ow much their pension will be ..... Of the 77 monthly ension receipts since retiring, only 10 have bettered he Personal Exchange Rate (SER) and these ccurred six years ago.
..... and
Fluctuations in the exchange rate have cause hardship and drastic changes in basic and modest lif styles of many HK pensioners living in the UK. Thi is fact.
I have not heard any hue and cry in the nationa media which would certainly arise if UK pensioner received less for their August pension than they receive in April. I have received 12% less and I cannot afford it
The fact is that something is very wrong with .... the amount of support SPOS provides."
OG retired October 1984
"I am greatly concerned about the fall in valu to me of my HK pension. Although there was a welcom 10% increase in April ..... I am receiving 12% less casi than last year or, with inflation, at least 20% less in rea terms. I am receiving no SPOS.
..... with the current rules my pension is nov effectively devalued in Britain by nearly 40% in casi terms let alone the effect of inflation. Since 1984 I hav received only a negligible amount of SPOS. It is al grossly unfair.
It was alarming to learn that the Governor wa apparently under the impression that currency losses in pension were covered by SPOS ..... Whilst theoreticall the rate of exchange may improve this seems less likely to happen to any significant extent now that Britain ha joined the European exchange rate mechanism."
MS retired September 85
..... received cumulative HK pension increase. of 34.8%. However..... the sterling value has actuall decreased by £36 per month or 3% ..... had no benefi whatsoever from HK pension increases and, during the same period, UK civil servants have been awarded increases of 24.03%.
As regards SPOS, because of the method o calculation it is almost impossible to receive this.... because HK pensions have increased by 35% as agains the UK's 24%. The glaring flaw in the operation o SPOS is that it ignores the exchange rate .....
it assumes that you are actually getting your basic pension at your SER rate unless the exchange rate is favorable to the pensioner when any increase in the basic sterling pension is counted as a currency bonu and is deducted from any SPOS payable."
VOICE, 3/1991
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