Dear Editor,
In his letter captioned “Pensions should continue for benefit of widows” (07.12.04) my friend Leon Dunsford Dickson made some comments in relation to payment of pension to a former colleague and the cessation of such payment on death. He further made some recommendations for the Trade Union Movement to pursue.
As a former Industrial Relations practitioner I recall efforts being made to institute a contributory scheme (with the then GNCB Trust) for the same colleagues and the reason why it failed to gain support. Part of the problem was that the present pension scheme for postal employees is non contributory, and of course the organisation representing these employees had, and may still have, their own views. The other point to recall is that three national schemes, including a Personal Retirement Account, were implemented in the Ibbott era, which some thought were great ideas, but which were discontinued for reasons best known to the political managers.
It may be very useful for agitation to reintroduce such a scheme, using the Model of the 401k which is popular here in USA.
Yours faithfully,
L A Camacho
