A PRIVATE member’s motion (PMM) demanding that legislation be brought to the General Synod no later than February 2026 to restore the clergy pension benefit to its 1997 level will be debated in July, it was confirmed this week.
It is now 15 months since 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 ensure the restoration of the clergy pension to its pre-2011 benefit level (News, 16 February 2024).
During the debate, 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 together with dioceses to explore ways in which the level of clergy pensions and stipends might be improved in a sustainable manner, with reference being made to the impact of changes to clergy pension benefits and the National Minimum Stipend (NMS) since 1998, including the change in level of the pension benefit 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 includes an increase in the NMS to catch up with inflation since 2011, which would also uplift the starting pension rate (News, 31 January). This was described as “merely a drop in the ocean” in a letter sent to the Church Times in March and signed by more than 700 members of the clergy (News, 14 March).
The new PMM, brought by Canon James Blandford-Baker, of Ely diocese, laments that “no legislative proposals have yet been brought forward for improving the level of clergy pensions”. It calls on the three bodies to bring to the General Synod no later than February 2026 “the necessary legislation to restore the clergy pension benefit to its 1997 level from the earliest point possible . . . with the cost of this restoration to be funded by the Church Commissioners, not by dioceses.”
Legislation should also be brought to “provide fair compensation to all clergy who have been financially disadvantaged by pension changes since 1998, so as to place them in the financial position they would 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 is required to ensure clergy are not merely provided with the bare minimum to live on, but supported in retirement with dignity and fairness — specifically regarding both pension provision and housing”.
The motion had 189 signatures as the Church Times went to press on Wednesday. The Business Committee has scheduled it for debate in July.