A GOVERNMENT rip-off which has siphoned £4.4 billion from the pensions of retired mineworkers receiving as little as £10 must end, a cross-party Commons committee urged today.

The House of Commons business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) select committee is calling for the “immediate transfer” of £1.2 billion to the mineworkers’ pension fund, and for the cancellation of a 26-year deal allowing the government to grab 50 per cent of surpluses earned by mineworkers’ pension fund investments.

In the run-up to privatisation of the coalmining industry in 1994, the government said that it would guarantee mineworkers’ future pensions payments if the mineworkers’ pension scheme (MPS) suffered losses on its investments. In return it would take 50 per cent of any surpluses.