Hundreds of miners’ are fearing for their pensions, as they are currently in limbo over whether UK Coal will commence insolvency proceedings after the closure of Daw Mill Colliery, one of the three mines it operated earlier this year.

A fire at Daw Mill Colliery has significantly affected the cash flow of UK Coal and most of Daw Mill Colliery’s 650 staff have been made redundant.

A spokesman for UK Coal told the Financial Times that £100m of equipment has been lost, £160m of coal and the company has £35m of costs to deal with. He stated that they are doing everything they can to save jobs and maximise the returns to creditors.

If UK Coal enters voluntary liquidation, the company’s £540m pension deficit would fall into the UK Pension Protection Fund, thus only protecting 90 per cent of miners' pension benefits. The workforce could see 10 per cent wiped off the value of their pensions.

UK Coal has made overall losses of £20.6m in the six months to 30 June, with Daw Mill contributing to a 20 per cent fall in production.

Share Story: