The newspaper for BBC pensioners – with highlights from Ariel online Talent Spot 1962 Remembering 50 years of The Beatles – page 7 February 2013 • Issue 1 Flat-rate State The Big Freeze Genome project Pension 1963 update Page 2 Page 7 Page 9 NEWS • MEMORIES • CLASSIFIEDS • YOUR LETTERS • OBITUARIES • CROSPERO 02 BBC PENSIONS BBC Pensions customer survey: Tours of new BH share your views with us In a previous issue of Prospero, we advised you that details of tours of New Question: Broadcasting House, MediaCity UK and Pacific Quay would be published in the What’s the shortest word in the English language February 2013 issue. Unfortunately, the tour that contains the letters ABCDEF? dates have not yet been finalised, although we hope to share them with you in the Answer: April issue. However, BBC Tours (which will be fully Goodbye to TVC Club Join us for an afternoon of memories as FEEDBACK transferring its activities from Television we say goodbye. The Club is arranging a From time to time the Trustees of the BBC Pension Scheme (the Scheme) ask for Centre to the new Broadcasting House) ‘Goodbye to TVC Club’ on Saturday 9 March feedback to help us monitor the satisfaction of members in respect of the Scheme-related is piloting tours of the building from between 12pm-5pm, exclusively for retired services provided. 18-28 March this year. staff. This will be a ticketed event with lunch We would be grateful if you could take five minutes to complete this survey. The responses If any Prospero reader would like to included and the Club will arrange access you give are confidential and all questions are optional. go on a free pilot tour, please call to the building in advance. We will be To complete the survey visit bbc.co.uk/mypension 0370 901 1227 and quote ‘BH Free showcasing an exhibition of old Club photos Alternatively you can request a paper copy from the pension service line on 029 2032 2811. Pilot Tour Offer’. and memorabilia and there will be other If you have any questions about this survey or your pension, please contact the pension There are only a limited number of these activities on the day to give TVC Club a service line on 029 2032 2811 or email [email protected]. tours so tickets are limited and issued on a good send off. Find out more at http://www. The results of the survey will be published in the August edition of Prospero. first come first served basis. bbcclub.com/together/television-centre/ television-centre-events) or contact Laura (Email: Laura.Bergamaschi @bbc.co.uk, Tel: 020 8576 8583). Thursday 28 March 2013 will be an historic day for BBC Club as we close the State Benefits update doors on TVC Club. Over the years the TVC Club has been a central hub for BBC staff to relax and socialise. The bar has been an Flat-rate State Pension Full details are expected to be confirmed by Future Pension Centre integral part of BBC life for thousands of In January, the government published further the government over the next few years. The Department for Work and Pensions employees, as well as playing host to live details about its proposal to introduce a The government also stated that the State (DWP) has introduced a new State Pension music events, comedy nights, quizzes, flat-rate State Pension, which was first Pension Age will be linked directly to life Statement service, to replace the State Pension birthday parties, leaving parties and mentioned in last year’s March budget. expectancy. The State Pension Age is expected Forecast service that the Department wrap parties. It would replace the current Basic State to rise to 66 in 2020 and 67 by 2028. previously offered. You can request a To mark the occasion we are putting Pension and the State Second Pension (S2P, statement directly from the Future Pension together an exhibition of old Club photos formerly known as SERPS). Only people Autumn Statement Centre by phone or in writing, or you can and memorabilia. We would love to hear reaching State Pension Age from 2017 would Chancellor George Osborne delivered the visit www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk to from our retired members and staff about receive the new pension. In other words, the Autumn Statement on 5 December 2012. Here request a statement online. The contact memories they have of TVC Club. Maybe proposals will not affect people who are is a summary of the key points announced: details for the Future Pension Centre are: you met your spouse over a pint, conjured currently receiving a State Pension. • The Basic State Pension will be increased by Telephone: 0845 3000 168 up the next programme idea or just have The weekly payment would be £144, plus 2.5% from April 2013, bringing the full Address: Future Pension Centre, Department wonderful memories of socialising with friends inflation rises between now and 2017. The Basic State Pension up to £110.15 per week. for Work and Pensions, Tyneview Park, and colleagues. Whatever your experiences current full Basic State Pension is £107.45 a • A planned increase in the level of the Newcastle upon Tyne NE98 1BA. we would like to hear from you. Send your week. (However this figure can be increased income tax Personal Allowance will be stories to [email protected]. The to £142.70 after pension credits and with higher than expected. From April, the Frozen pensions exhibition will run from 1-28 March. S2P benefits.) Personal Allowance for those aged under The International Consortium of British The new flat-rate State Pension would be 65 will be £9,440, a rise of £1,335 on the Pensioners (ICBP) has launched a new BBC Club secures a future an individual entitlement, so there are no 2012 figure, and £235 more than was website: www.pensionjustice.org. The From March, BBC Club will take over all special rules for people who are married, previously announced. campaign to prevent State pensions being remaining catering outlets for W12, beginning bereaved or divorced. • The threshold for higher rate (40%) tax ‘frozen’ (where they receive no inflationary with the opening of our new café and bar in The government’s proposals indicate that will increase by 1% each year in 2014 and increases) in certain countries continues. To Broadcast Centre. Members will still receive all accrued pension rights will be recognised, 2015, to reach £42,285. find out more, or to offer your support to the all the benefits and services that you have and that under the new system some future • The Inheritance Tax threshold will rise from group, please visit the site. been used to and discounts will be extended pensioners may be paid a top-up to the £325,000 now to £329,000 in 2015/16. to the new sites. Our White City gym is on new flat-rate State Pension during a • The Capital Gains Tax annual exempt Direct.gov replaced the move too, to Media Centre, and our Club transitional period. amount will also rise over the same The government website www.direct.gov.uk and gyms at Western House and Elstree will People will need to have paid national period, reaching £11,100 that year. has now been replaced by a newer version. be business as usual. You can continue to insurance for at least 35 years to receive the • A planned increase in fuel duty of over 3p The new site can be visited at www.gov.uk. collect your Radio Times from Club Western full amount of the flat-rate State Pension. per litre from 1 January was cancelled. The House and we are investigating alternative Anyone who has paid national insurance scheduled April increase has been deferred methods of distribution. So stick with us as contributions for less than 10 years will not until 1 September this year. we take the Club into a new era with BBC. receive the flat-rate State Pension under the • The overall ISA limit will increase to Got a question or comment? government’s current plans. £11,520 in April 2013. Email us at [email protected] or call 020 875 26666. Please send your editorial contributions, or comments/feedback, to: Prospero, BBC Pension and Prospero is provided free of charge to retired BBC Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ. employees, or to their spouses and dependants. Email: [email protected] Prospero provides a source of news on former Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension scanned at 300 dpi. issues, plus classified adverts. To advertise in Prospero, please see page 12. The next issue of Prospero will appear in To view Ariel online, please visit www.bbc.co.uk/ariel. April 2013. The copy deadline is 1 March 2013. PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 MEMORIES 03 USA charter flights CONTACTS Visiting Scheme Douglas Keown’s photograph from the inaugural 1962 BBC Club flight to New York resulted in a If you would like a visit or information on how to become a volunteer visitor, please flurry of emails and letters toProspero , sharing their memories of thunderstorms and Thora Hird! ring 0845 712 5529. You will be charged at the local rate. was a participant in that 1962 first Club who were visiting their son, with a view to I went on a BBC club flight to New York in flight to New York. The trip was written settling in Canada, which they subsequently September 1966. The trip was for three Queries For benefit and pension payroll queries, up in Ariel for November 1962.