In common with most UK company pension schemes the IWMPS is a trust fund managed by a trustee board. In the IWMPS the trustee board takes the form of a Committee of Management whose six members are the directors of Industry Wide Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme Trustees Ltd (the "Trustee"). Three of the six members of the Committee are appointed by the trade unions that have traditionally represented coal industry employees, and three are appointed by the Industry Wide Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme Co-ordinator Company Limited which acts for the participating employers in the Scheme. One of these three is appointed as Chairman by the Co-ordinator. All directors have duties under trust law to act in the best interests of the members of the Scheme, irrespective of how they were appointed.
The Committee of Management has overall responsibility for running the Scheme. Its duties are to manage the IWMPS in accordance with its Deed and Rules and to comply with pensions law and other law that affects the operation of company pension schemes. The primary duty of the Committee is to pay the benefits promised in the Rules to those entitled to receive them. In conjunction with that duty its primary business objective is to seek to ensure that each employer section is sufficiently well funded to pay the benefits promised.
Scheme structure
The IWMPS Trust Deed and Rules require a separate employer section to be established for each employer or group of associated employers since the benefits payable in respect of the members of each employer fund are to be funded solely by the contributions paid in respect of those members (together with investment returns). The assets and liabilities of each employer section are separate from the assets of the employer and separate from the assets of the other employer sections.
Several pooled funds have been established for investment management purposes. Each operates on a unitised basis so that the value attributable to each employer fund is readily ascertainable by reference to the number of units held in each pooled fund. The contributions remitted to the Scheme by employers are invested each month after making deductions to meet benefit payments due, life insurance premiums and the Scheme’s running costs in the following month. Investments are made in the relevant pooled fund(s) in accordance with the asset allocation policy for each employer fund. The money invested buys units in each pooled fund at the prevailing unit rate as determined by the market value for that fund.