Welcome to the May 2026 edition of the HPPA Pension Justice Newsletter. This month’s newsletter provides important updates about the ongoing campaign for pension justice.
Latest Campaign Updates
Pension Schemes Act Has Passed
Since the passage of the Pension Schemes Bill, HPPA has accepted and moved on to doing the most we can to influence the secondary legislation and guidance. As you know, the Pension Schemes Act 2026 does not specifically address the lack of indexation.
The Minister has said –
“The reforms we have introduced through the Pension Schemes Bill 2025 will enable more trustees of well-funded defined benefit schemes to share surplus with sponsoring employers, allowing them to negotiate additional benefits for members, including discretionary indexation. More broadly, the Pensions Regulator expects trustees to consider whether members would benefit from a discretionary increase, and to take account of any history of making such awards. Following the passage of the Pensions Schemes Bill, the Pensions Regulator will issue further guidance, developed with industry, outlining matters for trustees to consider when releasing surplus, as well as ways in which members can benefit, including, for example, benefit enhancement.”
We want to turn that tentative language into constructive change. To do that, we will ensure our views get into the process, directly and with the help of MPs. We want the real-life experience of pre-97 pensioners to be heard, considered and acted upon.
On the positive side, now we know for certain that the government sees the full picture of the pre-97 injustice. However, while they acknowledge us as “being left behind” – with other pensioner groups – in the words of a member of the House of Lords, “it seems the Government is not willing to consider this at the moment.”
We will continue to campaign, digging into the reasons behind this and finding a way forward. There will be more about this in the next newsletter when we hope to have made some progress in this regard.
Letter to Matt Harris, CEO HPE
We are delighted to share that Elaine Stewart MP for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock has written a letter to Matt Harris. Fifty years ago this month, Digital opened a manufacturing plant that grew to employ thousands of local people. Later, Digital opened a semi-conductor plant in South Queensferry which also was a significant employer, such that with the addition of the sales and field service workforce, Digital was a substantial employer for Scotland. This was mirrored across the UK, including in Reading, the UK headquarters, making Digital a large and influential national employer. Many of the workforce transferred to HP and we wanted Matt Harris to be reminded of the legacy.
Elaine also asked for a more positive response to this year’s recommendation by the trustee, i.e. that this year pre-97 pensioners would get a discretionary increase. Sadly, as we all know by now that did not happen, and 2026 is yet another year of zero percent increase, bringing a total of 23 years for HPE since 2002. Alliance members fared no better. To date, Elaine has had no reply from Mr Harris.
BBC Coverage of Alliance Member Nissan
Former employees are urging Nissan to increase part of its pensions in line with inflation. Steve is now a regular contributor to our alliance and tells his story below:
Steve Clare, from Chester-le-Street, worked at the Sunderland factory for 31 years and paid in to a defined benefit pension, but the pot of money accrued before April 1997 did not get inflation-linked rises because there was no legal obligation. Click the link below to read more.
Former Sunderland Nissan staff call for pension changes – BBC News
Thank You for Responding
Emails sent and received
Our members have continued to write to and receive replies from their MPs. This year to date a total of 334 emails have been sent and over 130 replies received.
Please do not just accept a reply from your MP that is not accurate. If you are not sure about it, ask us. Patricia will give you her opinion and give you suggestions to draft an appropriate reply.
MPs are sometimes ill advised. We can help you set them straight. They can only help us if they understand the pre-97 pension injustice. Otherwise, they continue to resist the change we need.
Here is a recent example that our efforts to make our case for pre-97 pension justice are working. More MPs understand our situation after exchanging messages with our members who are their constituents.
Below is a letter to Torsten Bell from Mohammad Yasin, MP for Bedford & Kempston after one such member exchange.
https://hppa.org.uk/letter-to-torsten-bell-from-mohammad-yasin-mp
Calls to Action
Members have always been incredibly responsive to call to actions, and most recently joined in to ask Martin Lewis, as a respected and fair advocate for those who have been overlooked, for his involvement in supporting pre-97 pensioners. A considerable number responded to the requests from two sharp-eyed members (Philip Livingstone and Steve Gothard – thank you both) on FaceBook, YouTube and LinkedIn to email Martin at ITV with respect to his Annual Pensions Special program on Tuesday 5th of May. Members of the Alliance, like Tony Tucker, also spread the word.
We thought that the team effort had paid off – a member of Martin’s team contacted one of our members and asked for further information, which we provided in abundance.
However, this transpired to be scam email advertising an investment opportunity from a fake profile, which we have of course reported to the platform and Martin’s team. It is a reminder to all of us to be vigilant regarding information we are sharing online.
While it’s true there was no segment dedicated to the “Frozen Pre-1997” campaign on the 5th of May, history shows us that Martin’s team often works on a “slow burn” for complex issues like ours, which they cover on Martin’s blog and BBC podcast. Martin rarely ignores a “David vs. Goliath” story where a trillion-dollar company is squeezing its own retirees! So, fingers crossed.
In Memorandum
It is with great sadness that we must inform you that our fellow pensions campaigner and leader Steve Spillane lost his fight with lung disease and died peacefully in hospital on Saturday. His wife Irene let us know that he had a lung reduction operation at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, and although initially things went well, an infection set in and he was transferred to intensive care. We are making enquiries with the family regarding obituary instructions.
Thank You for Your Donations
Finally, thank you to everyone who was able to donate in response to our email at the end of March. It was another incredible response and will help us move forward with our tasks this year, which include the fees for the website and mailing system, travel expenses to meetings and parliament, and ad-hoc material expenses as we need them.
Thank you for your continued support and engagement. Wishing you a pleasant month ahead.
HPPA- Patricia Kennedy, Jane Foley & David McIlroy