PENSIONS AND THE COLLAPSE OF CARILLION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2019 :: RMTnews 16 Following the collapse of the Carillion in January 2018 the two Carillion Rail sections of the Railways Pension Scheme (RPS), GTRM and Centrac, were placed in the assessment period of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). The PPF was set up in April 2005 as a “lifeboat” or “insurance scheme" to protect members’ occupational pension scheme benefits in the event of their employer going into administration and the employers’ pension scheme being in deficit at the time of the business collapsing. Defined benefit (final salary) pension schemes, such as the RPS and the TfL Pension Fund, pay towards the PPF in the shape of a levy. The levy is compulsory and the level of the levy is dependent on the financial strength of the sponsoring employer. The bigger the risk that the employer could go bust the more they will pay towards the levy. While far from perfect, the benefits paid by the PPF are usually lower than those originally promised by their occupational scheme but higher than they might have otherwise received before the PPF existed. RMT has been involved through the TUC with the wider pension issues resulting from the collapse of Carillion. It has been recently brought to the attention of our representatives that following a letter sent to members of the Carillion sections of the RPS from Quattro Pensions regarding the PPF assessment period it has left these members asking a number of questions, in particular who are Quattro Pensions? These beneficiaries of the GTRM and Centrac section, and members of this union, feel that they have been forgotten by the RPS due to, as they see it, the lack of information which has been sent to them by the RPS since their employer went bankrupt. On behalf of all members affected by the collapse of Carillion, RMT has raised members concerns with the administrators of the RPS (RPMI) whose response is as follows: “During the assessment period, the PPF has various tasks and member data checks to carry out before it decides whether the sections should formally enter the PPF – it is a complex process that takes on average two years to complete. To support this process, the PPF PENSIONS AND THE COLLAPSE OF CARILLION RMT News looks at the impact of the collapse of Carillion last year and the pension fund