End of year message for members

It has been another difficult year for everyone and we hope that you have been resilient throughout the year and continue to remain so as we move into 2022.

Execution of our strategy over the past 12 months

2021 was a busy year for us and we thank you for your support and encouragement and especially your feedback which was an important factor in providing ideas and helping shape our approach, strategy and tactics.

The year started with re-designing our website, conducting the member survey and the “Modellers”. We then implemented a range of “interventions” from that point onwards, including a number of meetings with the Trustees.

Our aim has been to create a series of interventions that work on two levels – to both challenge HPE and Trustees to work more collaboratively and create a breakthrough on discretionary increases, and at the same time, to position ourselves as being “part of the solution” by putting forward constructive proposals.

Our most recent and “final” interventions of our 2021 campaign before the company announces its 2022 decision included the following:

• a direct request and paper on “Ethics is Everyone’s Business” to Marc Waters
• a direct request and paper on “Towards Excellence in Trusteeship” to Paul Early
• a direct appeal to CEO Antonio Neri for his support and advocacy and sharing with him your personal feedback comments from the original member survey

All of this information is available on the website – there are links on the right.

It is worth pointing out that in our “Dear Mr. Neri” letter we have emphasised that the lack of cost of living adjustments for so long has created a crisis which is rapidly becoming worse due to the impacts of the pandemic and rising inflation – and that we are now at a tipping point and it requires strong leadership intervention to turn the situation around.

We have received a response from Marc Waters and Paul Early has agreed to attend the Dexodus AGM this year.  This may encourage you to attend and put questions directly to Paul on what he and the Trustees are doing to secure increases to our pensions.  We have not yet received a response from Antonio Neri to our latest  representations and will update you as soon as we do.

We are hoping that the cumulative effect of all these interventions over the past twelve months are effective enough to create a tipping point within HPE to turn the situation around.

While there is a degree of optimism – we also need to prepare ourselves for disappointment. It will be a devastating blow to have our appeals rejected once again.

Should this happen, we continue our campaign, with new ideas and new tactics and your support will again be needed in the next phase.

Access to all 2021 Campaign Interventions

The website has been updated to share with you these latest representations and they, along with all previous interventions can be viewed here.

2022 Campaign

 The company announcement for 2022 is obviously a critical event and this will determine how we proceed.

In the event of another negative outcome – we will have some important decisions to take in terms of how we continue the campaign and the nature and style of future interventions.

We have an outline programme of further interventions and are working on the detail behind these now.  Again, check out the website for the latest plan.

We will share with you a more detailed approach at a later date and closer to the point at which we know the 2022 outcome.

In the event of another negative outcome we believe we need to react quickly to show our resolve and determination to continue fighting. Should this happen, our plan includes asking you, the members, for more direct involvement and participation.

We clearly have to give further deep thought to all the above – and if you have any ideas, suggestions and proposals then please do let us know.

HP Relationship

We had a very good relationship with HP in both the UK and the US. This changed with the split of the company and turnover of personnel. 

We are looking at a new initiative to get into HPE UK and the leadership team, with aim of raising the profile of HPPA and the company’s pensioners.

We would like to strengthen the HPPA team with a member with Sales/Account management expertise to work on this. Please contact Alan if you are interested in volunteering for this Role.

Political Campaign

We had some success with our previous political campaign and at one point had over 150 MPs supporting us but failed in our ambition to get the law changed.

We are developing a new approach to get the pensions regulators guidelines changed. We are first going to take advice from specific MPs on how to go about this before asking for your support contacting your MP.

If you have a personal relationship and/or access to  your current MP we would be interested to hear from you – contact Steve.

Steering Group

The steering group is currently:

Alan Evans            Chairman
Steve Spillane       Secretary
Ian Young             Treasurer

John Brennan
Dave Carson
Jenni McCartney
Benny Placido
Martin Ranwell

John Brennan joined the Steering Group during 2021.

Financial Statement

Bank Accounts

HSBC have stopped supporting and, in some cases, froze not for profit treasurers’ accounts covering clubs, societies and charities – including HPPA. Ian Young foresaw this and we moved the bulk of our funds out to a safe haven. Ian, Steve and Alan went through a major series of hoops as well as visiting several branches of banks before finally getting a new account with Metro Bank. So, we now run a new current account and a PayPal account.

A brief financial statement can be found in Appendix 1 below.

Your acceptance of our strategy and Annual Statement

We hope you find this insight and report helpful and we appreciate your on-going support.

As a final request – we would appreciate it if you could provide us with your approval and acceptance of the priorities and strategy we adopted throughout the year and this 2021 Annual Statement.

To indicate your acceptance: Just reply in the comment box below with the word “Acceptance”.

Thank you

The HPPA Team – January 2022

APPENDIX 1 : Brief Financial Statement