Baptist Ministers' Pension Fund Consultation
Wednesday 27 August 2008
The Baptist Union of Great Britain is undertaking a Consultation with Ministers and Churches about the Baptist Ministers’ Pension Fund following the completion of a draft actuarial valuation of the Fund as at 31 December 2007.
The valuation shows that to maintain the existing levels of pension benefits, contributions will need to rise from 1 January 2009 from the current level of 18% of salaries to 24% of salaries, split appropriately between Ministers and Churches. The largest factor in the increase is the need to finance continuing improvements in pensioner mortality which means that pensions are in payment longer than previously anticipated.
This increase in contributions would bring the Baptist Ministers Pension Fund more into line with other denominational pension schemes whose premiums already range from 23% to 39.7%.
The Trustees of the Pension Fund and the Trustees of the Union agree that it is preferable at this time to increase contributions rather than reducing the benefits available under the scheme, but are encouraging as many people as possible to respond to the Consultation.
The Consultation runs until 31 October 2008, and decisions on the level of contributions for 2009 will be made by the Baptist Union Council in their meeting in November.
If you have questions that are not answered in the accompanying papers your first point of contact should be your member representatives on the Pension Fund Board or the Pensions Office at Baptist House in Didcot.
The member representatives are: the Revd Paul Rosier, the Revd Martin Poole, the Revd Edith Dawson, the Revd Neal Smith, the Revd David Lewis and the Revd Malcolm Goodspeed and their contact details can be found in the Baptist Union Directory.
