Tata Steel moved back into profit at the start of this year, in large part due to a boost of more than £1.5bn from the restructuring of its pension scheme, prompting unions to demand that cuts to members’ benefits be reversed. It benefited from a one-off gain of £1.54bn related to the restructuring of its British pension scheme. Of 122,000 UK pension scheme members, 83,000 opted to join the new British Steel pension scheme (BSPS) – one of the biggest in the country – and took a cut in benefits, in return for investment to secure jobs. The National Trade Union Steel Coordinating Committee, which includes the Community and Unite unions, said the unions had helped deliver the new British Steel pension scheme because “all the experts told us the alternative was the inevitable insolvency of Tata Steel UK”. The pension scheme trustees said Tata’s “surplus was calculated using best estimate assumptions”.

Source: The Guardian May 16, 2018 16:14 UTC