Royal Mail to leave taxpayers footing £8bn pension bill

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Royal Mail’s £8.4billion pension black hole will be dumped on taxpayers within months, the government has revealed.

The desperate bid to find a buyer for the embattled company will leave taxpayers footing a bill equivalent to £330 for every family in Britain.

The Department for Business revealed the timing of the controversial move for the first time yesterday. If it gets approval from the European Commission to provide state aid, the government will take on the pension deficit from Royal Mail in March 2012.


This clears the way for the postal service to be sold to the highest bidder, if a buyer can be found for a business facing a catalogue of problems.

After the pension deficit has been dealt with, it still faces plunging

The scale of the pension fund deficit being taken on by the British taxpayer is vast. It has assets of £26billion, but it also has liabilities, known as ‘pension promises’, of £34.4billion, which gives rise to the deficit of £8.4billion.

It is already paying the pensions of 182,000 retired workers, with a further 139,000 workers currently building up a company pension

[clashcityrocker]

After the pension deficit has been dealt with, it still faces plunging mail volumes, an urgent need to modernise and a militant workforce.

[Night Tonic]

Militancy won't save it either

[POSTMAN GATTUSO]

PLUNGING MAIL VOLUMES ,WHAT PLANET R U ON ,RUN BY THE RIGHT PEOPLE THIS COMPANY IS A GOLDMINE ,WHO THE F..K IS SAYING ALL THIS SHITE :dcfo :vcfo FANNIES.

[fishtank]

This £8 billion bill..to who exactly will that be paid?
No-one really because it's simply an "on paper" valuation...that changes all the time and is only really valid if the company goes tits up...which won't apply if the Government takes over the pension.
But the £23billion in assets...that's a different story.

[rhino49]

Forgive me if I am mistaken, but didn't the "black hole" arise because of several years payment holiday taken by Royal Mail because of tax liabilities imposed by a previous government ... and weren't the ensuing profits resulting from non payment creamed off by the owners (HM Government) to subsidise other less productive parts of the public services on behalf of the taxpayer ???

Can we have our money back please ?

[heapsy]

This £8 billion bill..to who exactly will that be paid?
No-one really because it's simply an "on paper" valuation...that changes all the time and is only really valid if the company goes tits up...which won't apply if the Government takes over the pension.
But the £23billion in assets...that's a different story.

Yes, a very crafty way of getting your hands on a very large lump sum in a short space of time. The government will now use it to pay off whatever immediate debts they have. Not a bad idea when you first look at it. When you look at it a second time, it's amazingly two faced. They are going on about debts and liabilities everywhere, yet they are saddling the public with yet another debt.
The current debt is £1.18 Trillion .

[Spedley]

The scale of the pension fund deficit being taken on by the British taxpayer is vast. It has assets of £26billion, but it also has liabilities, known as ‘pension promises’, of £34.4billion, which gives rise to the deficit of £8.4billion.

It really is a load of bollocks isn't it. It is an excellent example of statistics being used to justify a goal.
Is that costing £330 per family on a loss already accounted for or recovering £1021 on a bad debt from the £26billion sale of assets?

I also expect those £26 billion in assets to be sold for less than half that which basically means any company investing will instantly double it's money regardless of what happens to RM.

[NWpostie]

Important one, will we get paid in full when we hit retirement age or will they do a "Maxwell" ? what safeguards are put in place to prevent fraud and theft ? is there an independent trustee/regulator to look after our interest ?

[brothermagrew]

Intersting snippet from LTB 498/11:

...I believe that all noble Lords will agree that the sooner the company is relieved of the crippling burden of its £8.4 billion pension deficit, the better it will be for the company and for the pension plan members. For this reason, it is the Government's intention, subject to state aid approval, to relieve Royal Mail of its legacy pension deficit with effect from March 2012.

[Wessex]

Important one, will we get paid in full when we hit retirement age or will they do a "Maxwell" ? what safeguards are put in place to prevent fraud and theft ? is there an independent trustee/regulator to look after our interest ?

My dad used to pay in extra money into some govt scheme for mariners , and then it was done away with , no compensation was paid, funnily enough I think it was Thatcher who was responsible but before she became well known, so if my memory is correct then a precedent exists.

[demon]

s**t loads of mail every day and the money they have to pay back is what they stole from us 15 years ago