Letter to Paul Early

The following email was sent to Paul Early on the 24th of April from Alan Evans.

Hello Paul,

Well, I guess it would be a gross understatement to say that we are disappointed with the company’s decision regarding discretionary pension increases for 2023.

The anger and dismay felt by members is palpable. I hope the Trustee team feel the same way. From a personal perspective, if I were still involved as a trustee, particularly after the efforts you have made to persuade HPE to treat affected scheme members with a modicum of decency and respect, I would be considering my position!

Whatever goodwill was generated after last year’s moderate increase has been well and truly destroyed. It is apparent from messages that we have received from members that Trustee credibility and competence has also been damaged by extremely poor and incorrect communications.

Your letter stating that pensions increase each year in line with inflation, play slips arriving before the breakdown of increase letters and the breakdown schedule showing incorrect data (see the line regarding Post 97 5% increases), are, in our view, examples of serious maladministration!

However, this pales in comparison to the disastrous effects and loss of funds due to the LDI debacle. We believe that the impact on the HP scheme funds has, in great measure, led to the decision to make no discretionary payments this year. It is no surprise that the danger was flagged by Warren Buffett some years ago who characterised derivative investments of this nature as ‘Weapons of financial mass destruction’. What were your advisors doing? What were the Trustee doing? Strikes me that many Trustee boards were following the herd without proper analysis and in-depth understanding of the risks and potential impact.

We will shortly be writing to the company to request a meeting with HPE executives and yourselves to understand why we are being mistreated in this way. In any event, we would like to meet independently with your team to help our members understand the issues raised in this message, particularly relating to the extent of the damage done by the catastrophic effects of the LDI meltdown.

Feelings are running high, so please let us have some dates in the very near future for these vital discussions.

Regards

Alan Evans

Chair – HPPA