Posted by Dave Mitchell on 23 October 2000 at 22:29:20:
In Reply to: Re: Reply to letter to MP posted by Tally_ho_us on 22 October 2000 at 22:37:25:
: What is the manner required by law??? You need to find out what this is???
Just to make this clear, the minister, Jeff Rooker, is referring to the mechanism described in OPRA Note 3 which you can read/download at the link below. IBM has not done this (because it claims it has not been taking money out of the scheme).
I've appended a couple of relevant paragraphs from this note.
Dave
19. For this purpose, the members of the scheme are active members, deferred pensioners, pensioners and other persons entitled to the present payment of benefits under the scheme, such as the spouses and dependants of deceased members. All
members must be given two written notices (see paragraphs 20 and 21). Notices should be sent by post to the address at which the member was last known to be living or, in the case of an active member, to the address at which the member works. The legislation therefore makes it a requirement that all members, including deferred pensioners, are informed about the proposal. That means that if there has been no previous communication with deferred members, a letter must be sent to them at their last known address. Notices need not be given where a member has no known address, or if correspondence sent to the last known address has been returned.
20. The first notice must be given after the PSO has given approval in principle to the proposals for reduction or elimination of the statutory surplus (see paragraph 17(a)).
This notice must:
(a) give details of the proposals;
(b) outline the requirements of section 37(4) of the Act (see paragraphs 16-18), and tell the members whether the requirements are satisfied;
(c) tell the members of their right to make written representations about the proposals to the trustees before a specified date (not less than two months from the date the notice is given); and (d) tell the members that a second notice will be given to them if the trustees intend
to proceed with the proposals (having considered any written representations from the members), and that no payment will be made to the employer until at least three months after the date on which the second notice is given.