For the last 14 years Hewlett Packard and its successor Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have chosen not to pay any discretionary increases at all on our pensions that are pre-1997. 

We are the only country in Europe affected by this, as we are not protected by law in the UK.  In fact the law states that Pensions accrued before 1997 are not subject to statutory increases.

However, as you know we have been working hard to gather evidence to present to HP senior management, and the Pension Trustees to get their agreement to return to paying annual increases. We have tried appealing to them on moral grounds; presented information provided to pensioners about their financial difficulties to inform their decisions; presented cases to the Ombudsman with no change in attitude from HPE and we have sought legal advice.

We asked you to complete a survey and many of you did, and this gives us good evidence of the hardship you are experiencing.

Just a couple of things to consider about HPE and their treatment of us:

• In 2020 HP was named again as being among the World’s most ethical companies
• HP say they are “focussed on impacting the communities in which we live and work in a
  positive way”.
• And yet we have 14 years of zero discretionary increases for UK Digital Pensioners.

We all spent time working for Digital UK, helped build the company into a successful business in the UK. We paid into the pension scheme, having been led to believe we would receive increases when we were in receipt of pensions. We have not received an increase for 14 years. For some of us this means significant financial hardship.

The fight goes on to force HPE to award discretionary increases on pre-1997 pensions.