A number of ex-mineworkers claim that they have been robbed of half their pension fund by a lack of government contributions, the Hucknall Dispatch has reported.

Members of the Mineworkers’ Pension Fund have had it confirmed to them that the government has not made any contributions to the scheme for over 18 years.

The dispute relates to the government guarantee that it has over the scheme. According to the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme website the government guarantee was put in place on 31 October 1994, the day the Scheme was changed to reflect the impact of the privatisation of the coal industry. It is a legally binding contract between the trustees and the government.

In addition to ensuring benefits earned up to privatisation, and that benefit improvements from surpluses before 1994 will always be paid and keep their real value, the guarantee provides protection to ensure that the total pension is not reduced in cash terms each year.

Under the arrangement, 50 per cent of any surplus after 1994 is made available to provide bonuses for scheme members. The remaining 50 per cent is payable, in equal instalments over 10 years, to the government.

Former Thoresby miner Mick Newton told the paper: “We put a Freedom of Information request to the government asking how much money the government put in as a guarantee to the Mineworkers’ Pension fund since 1997 and they admitted they haven’t put any money in. We have it in black and white from the Treasury.”

The response to the group’s Freedom of Information request stated: “Over the period 1997 to 2015 there have not been any payments from HM government as a result of the guarantee of the benefits on the Mineworkers Pension Scheme. Therefore, during this period the guarantee has not directly “cost” the government anything.”

When mineworkers begun their campaign last year, a government spokesman said: “The government has given considerable financial support to the mining industry to date. Those who are members of the Mineworker’s Pension Scheme receive pensions approximately 30 per cent larger and these will continue to rise.

“The percentage of the excess pension pot that goes to government is considered reasonable recompense for the past taxpayer investment in the scheme when the industry went through a period of public ownership.”

However, in 2003, the government was criticised by the then Scottish Labour Party MP for East Lothian Anne Picking who stated that a “50 per cent take of surpluses to guarantee the scheme is excessive and that about 15 per cent is closer to the going rate for the job”.

At the time she noted that as of 2003 the scheme had never had to invoke the guarantee.

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