Newsletter No. 56

 HALCROW PENSIONERS ASSOCIATION 

 Newsletter No. 56 : March 2024

This is a newsletter of the Halcrow Pensioners Association (HPA). More details of HPA's objectives, organisation and its activities are here. You have been sent this newsletter because you are on the HPA's mailing list. Membership of HPA is open to all to all former Halcrow employees, sub-contractors, spouses and dependants who consider themselves to be part of the Halcrow "family". If you do not wish to receive the HPA newsletters then please either use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email or email the webmaster to remove your name from the mailing list. If you know anyone who may be interested to receive the newsletters then please forward them this newsletter using the link at the bottom of this email and encourage them to sign up for their own newsletters here.

The 2024 Annual General Meeting
In accordance with HPA's constitution, the Annual General Meeting shall take place in April. It is proposed to adopt the format used previously of a virtual meeting in a sub-forum of the HPA forum and all members are entitled to attend. The meeting will be the members' annual opportunity to contribute to the direction and operation of HPA. The 2024 AGM will be held in the HPA forum between 20th and 28th April. The proposed schedule, which has been based on the pace of previous AGMs, for the meeting is:

The agenda is here and links to the other documents will be posted in the HPA forum prior to the commencement of the AGM. Nominations or proposed items to be discussed at the AGM can be posted in the 2024 AGM forum to provide opportunity for others to view and, if appropriate, comment on them. Alternatively, please email them (also any apologies) to the secretary. An updated agenda will be issued before the meeting. The AGM is the opportunity for the members to provide their views on the direction and strategy of HPA. Please attend and provide your input.

At the April 2022 HPA annual general meeting the members approved the suspension of annual subscriptions which means that anyone who has ever paid a subscription to HPA since its establishment is entitled to attend. Anyone new wishing to join HPA, however, will be required to pay a one-off subscription of £10. Please contact the treasurer for guidance on payment methods.

While the 2022 AGM voted in favour of HPA developing a role for social networking among the members, this has not progressed because no one has volunteered to head the initiative.

Deprived Pensioners Association
The Deprived Pensioners Association continues to push for the indexation of pre-1997 pension accruals. While primarily aimed at the PPF/FAS, any change in the law could be beneficial to members of HPS2 who were promised that "their pension would be better than PPF" with the benefit of a PPF Underpin protection in the HPS2 Trust Deed dated March 2016. Pledges have now reached over 90% of the initial funding target of £50,000 for starting preparation for a legal challenge. Please consider if you are willing to support this work. In addition, DPA has requested that people write to their MPs calling for a change in the law by annulling the pre-1997 clause in the current legislation. To facilitate this, DPA have prepared draft texts for (1) a letter/email to the MP and (2) a supporting attachment setting out the background (if you do nothing else, please read this - it is very informative). Please support this initiative.

Future HPA Initiatives
The need for HPA continues and among the possible ongoing tasks to look after HPA members' interests are:
1.    To keep HPA members informed about HPS2 and other pension-related matters.
2.    To closely monitor HPS2, the HPS2 Trustee and Jacobs UK (the scheme sponsoring company) to see whether adequate contributions are being made to the pension scheme.
3.    To examine and comment on proposals for changes to pension-related laws or regulations where we think they would affect our interests.
4.    Take opportunities to press for better supervision of pension schemes and their sponsoring companies.
5.    To facilitate social networking between former Halcrow employees.

Previous Newsletters
If you haven't been with HPA from the start or want to remind yourself of previous events then you can browse through the previous newsletters for which there is a full list here.