In a Parliamentary debate in Westminster Hall this week, Alistair Carmichael, MP (Orkney & Shetland) told UK Pension’s Minister Paul Maynard that BP appeared to be “dealing from the bottom of the deck” when it came to pension decisions made by its leaders which have reduced the value of the pension paid by 11% in real terms in just two years.

The BP Pension Fund has c.58,000 members of whom 16,000 are over the age of 80. The average annual pension paid is c.£18,000 pa.

For some 30 years, BP and the Trustees have given written and verbal assurances that their policy is to “increase pensions fully in line with cost-of-living increases wherever possible and provided the Fund has sufficient resources.”.

The MP said BP was seeking to “play-off” pensioners and employees in trying to justify its decisions and called on BP’s new leadership “to spend time talking to their pensioners in a serious and meaningful way which frankly they have failed to do thus far.”

Thousands of BP employees invested their own money into the Fund with that assurance. The Fund currently has a very strong surplus of £5 billion.

In the past two years, BP and the Trustees have failed to follow the policy of increasing pensions in line with the cost of living leading to a permanent 11% reduction in the value of BP pensions in real terms.

Carmichael warned that the BP issue was the equivalent of a “canary in a coalmine” for Defined Benefit pensions in the UK.

“What happens to them can happen to others – that’s why this is a matter to which the government must now turn its close urgent attention.”

Other MPs intervened in the debate to express similar concerns raised by constituents.

In response, Maynard said:

“Having listened, I will look closely again at the situation regarding the pension schemes I have heard about today to understand fully what has happened and whether the arrangements currently in place in regulation are working as intended. “

BP recently said it would boost its charity – formerly the BP benevolent Fund – and help some of its UK pensioners with means-tested one-off payments. However, Carmichael told the Minister:

“Pensions aren’t charitable handouts. This is money that people have earned in the course of their working lives.”

Speaking on behalf of the BP Pensioner Group, Mike Slingsby said:

“We are grateful to Mr Carmichael and fellow MPs for hosting this important debate – and we’re encouraged by the response of the Minister.

“Today has seen the appointment of Murray Auchincloss as BP’s new CEO. We urge him to show real leadership in line with the Company’s values by revisiting the decisions made over the past two years that have caused such great anxiety and financial impacts on thousands of his UK pensioners – a significant number of whom are in their 80s and 90s.

“As the only group representing the interests of BP’s pensioners – we stand ready to work with Mr Auchincloss to bring this wholly unnecessary dispute to a close.”

The BP Pension Fund trustee recently admitted that it was in talks with insurance companies inviting them to ‘buy-in’ to the Fund. Buy-In arrangements are invariably the first step leading to a complete sell off of pension funds to insurance companies

Commenting on Linked in Slingsby wrote a further challenge to  Murray Auchincloss

Dear Mr Auchincloss,

Congratulations and welcome to the top seat of BP. A number of your Pensioners found themselves in lonely situations like this at times during their BP careers, taking charge in extremely difficult situations.

As BP Pensioners, it would be easy for us to say that it was Murray that decided to short change us but, no, we must view this as a golden opportunity to persuade you to think again.

It really is possible that you are now alone as the minority of one within BP who believes that the recent UK pensions decisions were justifiable.

Will your colleagues tell you what they really believe. We doubt it. Please pause for thought, study the pensioners case, read the press, listen to the politicians. Please think again.

Just as the MP in Westminster yesterday is now a Pensioners hero, you suddenly have the power and the immediate opportunity to change your mind. Do the right thing & you could also be an overnight hero.

Meanwhile, your Pensioners will continue to politely pursue their case via all channels available. It would be lovely if the first thing you do is to ‘open the BP door’ to treat us with the respect we deserve.

If you want to join the  2,600 members of the BP Pensioner Group or find out more about what they want you should go to their website  or get  further Information on  07824 696946 or from  contact@bppensionergroup.org