§ Mr. Kenneth Carlisleasked the Secretary of State for Energy what steps he intends to take to ensure that miners who volunteered for redundancy do not lose their benefits under the redundant mineworkers payment scheme as a result of the present strike in the industry.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerThe Government have no desire to see miners who take redundancy penalised as a result of the strike. They therefore intend to introduce amendments to the redundant mineworkers' payments scheme to enable men whose scheme benefits are affected during the period of the dispute to receive additional payments designed broadly to compensate for. RMPS basic benefit and pension supplement lost. Such amendments are necessary' because under the existing order entitlement to weekly RMPS benefit is linked to eligibility for unemployment benefit so that a man who is ineligible for the latter also generally loses entitlement to the former. A mart's entitlement to lump sum benefit is not affected.