Since 2002  Hewlett Packard and its successor Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have chosen not to pay annual discretionary increases on our pensions that are pre-1997, except for 3 years; 2004, 2008 and 2015 making a total of 5% increase overall in 24 years. 

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 HPE 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 and 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:

• HPE is repeatedly named as being among the World’s most ethical companies
• HPE say they are “focussed on impacting the communities in which we live and work in a
  positive way”.
• And yet Pre-97 pensioners have not had an inflation increase for 22 years. 

We all spent time working for Digital UK and helped build the company into a successful business which was bought by Compaq, then HP, later becoming HPE. We paid into the pension scheme, having been led to believe we would receive increases when we were in receipt of pensions. We would not have paid into a pension scheme that we thought would not keep pace with inflation.  

The campaign for justice continues to force HPE to award discretionary increases on pre-1997 pensions.