PENSIONS
SPOS and Pensions Feedback
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 tells us.
I am happy to say that we have recently had several letters 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 amount of SPOS.
So far as SPOS is concerned, quite simply, they are not getting any. It comes as quite a shock to those affected to find that our pensions are not so well protected as we have been led to believe.
A synopsis of a few of the comments together with some figures illustrating the problems has been prepared and is as follows.
Overseas Pensions Department, April 1991
"SPOS is designed to top up the value of any increases awarded by overseas governments to former Colonial Service pensioners to the same level as the increases paid to a Home Civil Service counterpart who receives a basic pension of equivalent sterling value".
PJ retired in 1982
"Since retirement the purchasing power of my HK pension in the UK has fallen by 22%. Currently my SPOS covers less than 2% of the deficiency.
A UK civil servant's index-linked pension would have maintained the same purchasing power as when he retired and yet Mr. Francis Maude has stated that HK pensioners do "reasonably well" compared with their UK counterparts.
There is now widespread dissatisfaction amongst HK pensioners".
WF retired April 1984
"SPOS the administrative arrangements are probably satisfactory but the supplement is certainly not.
the $HK/SUS link. Pensioners should not have to face the worry at the end of each month as to how much their pension will be ..... Of the 77 monthly pension receipts since retiring, only 10 have bettered the Personal Exchange Rate (SER) occurred six years ago.
and these
Graham Smith
Fluctuations in the exchange rate have caused hardship and drastic changes in basic and modest life styles of many HK pensioners living in the UK. That is fact.
I have not heard any hue and cry in the national media which would certainly arise if UK pensioners received less for their August pension than they received 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 value to me of my HK pension. Although there was a welcome 10% increase in April I am receiving 12% less cash than last year or, with inflation, at least 20% less in real terms. I am receiving no SPOS.
with the current rules my pension is now effectively devalued in Britain by nearly 40% in cash terms let alone the effect of inflation. Since 1984 I have received only a negligible amount of SPOS. It is all grossly unfair.
It was alarming to learn that the Governor was apparerdy under the impression that currency losses in pension were covered by SPOS ..... Whilst theoretically the ate of exchange may improve this seems less likely to happen to any significant extent now that Britain has joined the European exchange rate mechanism." MS retired September 85
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received cumulative HK pension increases of 34.8%. However the sterling value has actually decreased by £36 per month or 3% had no benefit 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 of calculation it is almost impossible to receive this ..... because HK pensions have increased by 35% as against the UK's 24%. The glaring flaw in the operation of 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 bonus and is deducted from any SPOS payable.”
VOICE, 3/1991
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