OVERSEAS SERVICE PENSIONERS' ASSOCIATION
PRESIDENT:
The Lord Grey of Naunton, GCMG GCVO OBE
SECRETARY:
D. F. B. Le Breton, CBE
The Rt. Hon. Alastair Goodlad, MP, Minister of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street,
LONDON SW1A 1AH.
Date:
271
138 High Street Tonbridge
Kent
TN9 1AX
Telephone: 0732-363836
2 November 1993 PL1
Our Ref:
HKA 233/1
Your Ref:
1~ NOV 1993
Dear Mr. Goodlad,
When Lord Grey and other OSPA representatives met you on 10 May we explained the urgent need for the British Government to separate the issue of amending the SPOS Regulations, which affect existing pensioners with Hong Kong service, from the other issues of compensation and the safeguarding of pensions after 1997 which concern serving officers in Hong Kong. You said that the revision of SPOS had difficult financial implications, and that it involved other Government Departments, but you hoped to see an outcome shortly to the package then under discussion.
Now, almost six months later, and following your own visit to Hong Kong last month, there has still been no apparent change in the situation. Hong Kong pensioners, who have not benefited from today's high salary levels in Hong Kong, are still suffering serious disadvantage because of the fluctuations in their income caused by exchange rate changes, and because the SPOS Regulations as applied by the ODA fail to protect the purchasing power of their basic pension.
We understand that the justification for amending the SPOS Regulations has been recognised in the Government Departments primarily concerned. We believe that a decision should not be further delayed and we do not accept that it should remain bound up in a package with the other Hong Kong issues. It can and should be separated and resolved on its own without further delay.
Our members are expressing increasingly strong dissatisfaction over the British Government's failure so far to deal with this matter. An example is in the article carried in the latest number of our journal The Overseas Pensioner, by a Hong Kong pensioner - I attach a copy. It is becoming increasingly difficult to resist moves to initiate a Judicial Review (or some other court proceedings) into the ODA's responsibilities under the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971.
I therefore ask that you should consult the ODA and other Departments concerned with a view to having this issue separated from the rest of the Hong Kong package so that an early decision can be reached.
Yours sincerely,
F.N. Pusinelli Chairman
Sulli
M
9/11
m's HICD
ce. Ps/M Goodead.
The Whiting pl.
اره من
for draft reply by 12/1 please.
6.J. Darey.
PsJdu Goodrata 8/11