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Delyth Jewell, who is the deputy leader of Plaid Cymru, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.

The effect of our area’s coal mining legacy can be seen across our landscape – but it’s also left more hidden scars on the lives of our former mineworkers. 

Thousands of miners still await billions of pounds in pension payments – because that money was taken by the UK Government.  Whilst the Labour government in Westminster finally put part of this right in the last budget, by ensuring members of the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme would receive pension surplus funds, they inexplicably failed to do the same for those miners who were part of a different scheme, the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (or the BCSSS).

It seems that this glaring failure was down to a single missing letter in the last Labour manifesto: because instead of pledging to right the wrong done to mineworkers’ pension schemes, the final “s” was left out of their manifesto.  And what a terrible price has been paid by the miners as a result of this omission.

These workers earned this money.  They deserve to have it repaid with urgency.

Last week, I attended a public meeting in Cascade Community Centre, where many former mineworkers came together to discuss the urgent need for action from Westminster. We were joined by pension trustee Bleddyn Hancock, as well as Caerphilly MP Chris Evans, and we pledged to do all we could to advocate on their behalf. I raised this matter in the Senedd this week and urged the Welsh Government to raise it with their London counterparts.

This injustice has gone on for years, as government after government in Westminster has refused to right the wrong.  

Many of these workers have lived with poisoned lungs and critical conditions as a result of their work.  We cannot afford for more miners to die before they receive their money. In the public meeting, we heard from one former miner who was 90-years-old, and who’d suffered a stroke. He asked, in tears, what the best possible outcome could be. Another former miner in the same room was 101-years-old. They need this money. They deserve this money.

The Welsh Government must put pressure on the UK government to give all those workers enrolled in the scheme the money they’re owed.  It is the least they can do, and I will keep campaigning with the former mineworkers until this happens.