HPPA ANNUAL STATEMENT for 2022
End of year message for members
A significant and symbolic year
Following intensive campaigning throughout 2021 and early 2022, the company granted a 3% discretionary increase in April. While this increase was below the rate of inflation it was a significant event because it broke the thirteen-year cycle of zero discretionary increases since 2009.
It was therefore highly symbolic for all of us, including company leadership and Trustee Directors.
It is important to note that this increase was funded by surplus funds that existed within the plan at that time.
We acknowledged the company decision with a letter to Marc Waters, Antonio Neri and Paul Early while at the same time expressing the view that we still have a long way to go to achieving our vision and goal that company executives and the Trustee develop a collaborative strategy enabling and facilitating sustainable future increases as well as a recovery strategy to deal with the damage caused by thirteen years of zero increases.
Continued execution of our strategy in 2022
Our strategy in 2022 had two elements – a focus on Trustees and Company and a focus on Regulatory Change and Politicians.
Focus on Trustees and Company – March to September
Hot on the heels of the discretionary award announcement we made further interventions:
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- A request to establish dialogue with Member Nominated Trustee Directors (MNTDs)
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- A paper to Paul Early outlining the deepening crisis for pre-97 pensioners, our thoughts on Trustee interventions and a request to re-start dialogue
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- A “Roadmap to Recovery” proposal to Paul Early and then to Marc Waters
Our request for dialogue with MNTDs was turned down with the reason given that all Trustees, whether company or member nominated, acted collectively to represent member interests.
Marc Waters responded to our “Roadmap to Recovery” proposal saying that he expected the Trustee to engage with the company on these matters.
We met with Paul Early, Martin Smith and Beverly Clements (MNTD) in September. Following this meeting we provided a “Reflections” paper outlining our perspective on various topics including the Trustee strategy of heading towards a plan “buy-out”. We would urge members to be aware of and consider the implications of a buy-out strategy as we put forward the view that we do not believe a “buy-out” strategy is in the best interests of members if there is no acceptable solution to dealing with the issue of discretionary increases. A similar view is also espoused by the Chief Actuary of Mercer – a company which is also an advisor to the Trustee. We also reinforced our view that we must also not lose sight of the need for an effective recovery strategy and we rely on Trustees to develop thinking on this with the company. Since the September meeting, we are not aware of any further significant development in progressing the ideas within our Recovery Strategy. We now await the 2023 discretionary decision outcome and an update from the Trustee. Our “Reflections” paper can be found on the website at the link below.
Following the September meeting we turned our attention to the second aspect of our campaign.
Focus on Regulatory Change and Politicians – July to present
Through on-going research, we became aware of consultation exercises being run by The Pensions Regulator and Department of Work and Pensions. This presented us with the opportunity to re-think and re-structure much of our work based on better understanding of legislation and we submitted representation asking for a “Code of Ethical Practice” for the treatment of all UK pensioners dependent on discretionary increases for their pre-1997 service.
These consultations had closing deadlines. We had not fully developed and finalised our thinking on our MP engagement strategy but we felt compelled to act quickly and issued our “Call to Action” to all members on November 17th. Although it was issued before full strategy had been developed we knew we were heading into uncharted territory and had to adopt an emergent strategy based on learning as new information came in.
Achieving advocacy with MPs required a number of you to persist and persevere and re-engage with multiple communications with your MP.
Your feedback has been immensely important in helping us monitor and assess the responses, detect and deal with misunderstanding by MPs, adapt our approach and fine-tune and better explain why our request has strong merit. Key learnings were included in our progress update and second “Rise-up and Roar” call to action on December 14th.
Some Progress and Traction gained so far
Your interventions gained advocacy from a number of MPs and it is worth giving some detail on specific outcomes so far:
Pensions Select Committee
We have received a highly positive response from Sir Stephen Timms – Chair of the Pensions Select Committee which was as follows:
Thank you for contacting me about the issue raised by the Hewlett Packard Pensioners’ Association (HPPA): payment of discretionary increases on pension rights built up before 1997. I am grateful to the Association for all its work in highlighting this very important issue.
My Committee is currently looking at Defined Benefit Pension Schemes with Liability Driven Investments (LDI). We have said we intend to conduct a further inquiry in the new year looking at DB schemes more widely. A call for evidence and terms of reference for that inquiry will be agreed by the Committee and published in due course. Given the importance of indexation to support living standards, I would expect that to be included, and I have received a number of representations already raising this point.
I hope the HPPA will consider submitting evidence to our inquiry once it is launched.
Thank you again for taking the trouble to draw this to my attention.
Yours sincerely,
Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms
Chair, Work and Pensions Select Committee
Pensions Minister Laura Trott MBE MP
Pensions Minister Laura Trott received advice from a pension’s spokesperson within the House of Lords. We considered this advice to indicate clear misunderstanding of what we were asking for and our member re-engaged to clarify the situation. Laura Trott responded positively by informing our member that she has asked DWP officials to review the clarification provided. Our member awaits a response.
It is worth mentioning that the type of misunderstanding referred to above , as we perceived it, was not uncommon and was reflected in almost all MP responses received by many of you. When we became aware of this we provided support as best we can to help re-engage.
Your feedback has been instrumental in helping us adapt and refine the way in which are putting forward our case and you will see this embedded within the latest “example member engagement letter” in the toolkit materials.
The Pensions Regulator
Some members have received via their MPs a standardised response which again has required re-engagement. While the TPR response recognises the reasons and rationale we are putting forward and the impact of inflation – their position is that “they do not have the powers” to introduce such a code and changing legislation is the responsibility of the DWP.
Again – based on your feedback and keeping us informed – we are re-engaging to strengthen our argument and put forward our case for intervention by the TPR.
The TPR have opened a new consultation on their original draft code of practice and we are in the process of submitting a revised representation. We will provide an update on this in the near future.
Access to all 2022 Campaign Interventions
The website has been updated to share with you our latest representations and they, along with all previous interventions can be viewed here.
2023 Activities
The company announcement for 2023 is obviously a critical event that we are all waiting for. Another positive outcome does not set a trend but it will be another significant and symbolic sign.
In the event of a negative outcome – we will have some serious thinking to do.
However – regardless of outcome this year – every one of us are still highly dependent on company leadership and the Trustee continuing to work to develop collaborative strategy for future discretionary increases, not forgetting a recovery strategy.
We also believe our campaign for a code of ethical practice has direct relevance, importance and benefit for Trustees. It is therefore our intention to also ask Trustees for their support and advocacy and participation in the TPR consultation to help bring about changes that promote and enable greater collaboration and more ethical treatment of pensioners dependent on discretionary increases.
We would encourage all members to think about how you can also personally continue to support our campaign.
We welcome your feedback on any aspects of the campaign and this report.
Steve Spillane
After fourteen years of dedicated campaigning, Steve Spillane decided it was time to stand down from the HPPA team. Steve has provided unstinting efforts in our quest to be fairly treated by HPE. This includes gaining traction with politicians who took up our cause resulting in a Westminster Debate in Parliament a few years ago. We owe Steve a huge debt of gratitude for his contribution over the years. Steve offered to continue working with us to re-establish relationships with the current coterie of politicians in an effort to end the mistreatment of those of us with pre-1997 pension payments. Thank You Steve!
Volunteering
If anyone has an interest in getting involved and providing support and/or joining the Steering Group then let us know.
Donations
Lastly – we want to thank everyone who donated following our most recent request – which is very much appreciated. Further donations would be greatly appreciated.
Steering Group
Chair Alan Evans
Secretary Vacant
Treasurer Ian Young
John Brennan
Dave Carson
Jenni McCartney
Benny Placido
Martin Ranwell
Financial Statement
A brief financial statement can be found in Appendix 1.
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 2022 Annual Statement by replying in the comment box below with the word “Acceptance”.
Thank you
The HPPA Team – January 2023
We await this year’s decision with optimism for another positive outcome.
18 Responses
Although I don’t pretend to understand all the technical terms and issues, I do appreciate the work you committee members have all put in and continue to do so.
Acceptance. Thank you for all you are doing here to help pre-1997 pensioners.
Acceptance
Acceptance
Acceptance. Thanks to all who continue to strive for a just outcome for pre-1997 pensioners. It is a continued disgrace that one of the world’s largest multinational companies is able to hide behind legislation that appears to only impact those in the UK. It is equally disgraceful that the UK Government has allowed this situation to continue for so long. Not only is the impact on those affected a travesty but the additional state aid required to support them is borne by the tax payer and not the company that benefitted from the efforts of those who worked for them.
Accept
Thank you all for your efforts on our behalf. One minor point: for those of us who started with Dec in the 1970s, the “3%” only applied to pensions earned between 1988 and 1997. Anything prior to 1988 recieved the usual zero. In my case the overall result was a 1.7% increase which, with the increased tax caused by the OAP increase, resulted in a “cash in hand” inrease of £3 a month. On the other hand the cost of my energy more than doubled, from £90/month to £208/month. Just to put it in context and not intended as any form of criticism for the continuous and frustrating efforts of you and your team.
Acceptance
Thank you all for your continued efforts on resolving the pre 97 increase issue.
Acceptance.
Thank you for all your efforts.
Acceptance.
Thanks for all you do, it’s appreciated.
A huge thank you to all those who put in time and effort to right this wrong. It is hugely appreciated.
Acceptance. Many thanks for your efforts.
Acceptance. Many thanks to all of you who are persevering with this task on behalf of the rest of us. Your efforts are much appreciated.
Acceptance
Acceptance. Thank you for all you are doing.
Acceptance and a big thank you to everyone for the continued efforts on behalf of us pensioners
Acceptance
Really appreciate everything you are trying to do. The amount of effort is significant. Thank you. I find it hard to understand how HP can defend their behaviour with regard to discretionary increases. And that’ ‘no increase’ only applies in the UK.