A PRIVATE member’s motion (PMM) demanding that laws be dropped at the General Synod no later than February 2026 to revive the clergy pension profit to its 1997 level can be debated in July, it was confirmed this week.
It is now 15 months because the General Synod debated a PMM brought by Dr Ian Paul that called on the Archbishops’ Council, the Pensions Board, and the Church Commissioners to make sure the restoration of the clergy pension to its pre-2011 profit level (News, 16 February 2024).
During the talk, Dr Paul accepted an amendment from the chair of the Archbishops’ Council’s Finance Committee, Carl Hughes, which called on the three bodies to “work along with dioceses to explore ways during which the extent of clergy pensions and stipends could be improved in a sustainable manner, with reference being made to the impact of changes to clergy pension advantages and the National Minimum Stipend (NMS) since 1998, including the change in level of the pension profit from two-thirds of NMS prior to 2011” (News, 1 March 2024).
In February, Mr Hughes presented a package from the Diocesan Finances Review for consideration by the Triennium Funding Working Group that features a rise within the NMS to meet up with inflation since 2011, which might also uplift the starting pension rate (News, 31 January). This was described as “merely a drop within the ocean” in a letter sent to the Church Times in March and signed by greater than 700 members of the clergy (News, 14 March).
The recent PMM, brought by Canon James Blandford-Baker, of Ely diocese, laments that “no legislative proposals have yet been brought forward for improving the extent of clergy pensions”. It calls on the three bodies to bring to the General Synod no later than February 2026 “the needed laws to revive the clergy pension profit to its 1997 level from the earliest point possible . . . with the price of this restoration to be funded by the Church Commissioners, not by dioceses.”
Legislation also needs to be dropped at “provide fair compensation to all clergy who’ve been financially disadvantaged by pension changes since 1998, in order to put them within the financial position they’d have been in had those changes not been made”.
The final clause calls on the Archbishops’ Council to “commission a comprehensive, independent review into what’s required to make sure clergy are usually not merely supplied with the bare minimum to continue to exist, but supported in retirement with dignity and fairness — specifically regarding each pension provision and housing”.
The motion had 189 signatures because the Church Times went to press on Wednesday. The Business Committee has scheduled it for debate in July.
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