NI Presbyterian mutual society, Short of funds for withdrawal?

BelfastGran

Mr Mcguinness Apologies For Incorrect Spelling Of Your Name In Previous Post.

fivealive_2

Amontylado wrote: »

Hello again. I noticed an interview by Evan Davis with Gordon Brown in which GB stated that 'No saver has lost any money...' so I emailed Evan Davis with a brief summary of the PMS situation. He has now replied saying that he will get the Today programme on to it.
As the Treasury review was announced on 20 Feb this may reduce the newsworthiness of the story as now the government appears to be doing something - but how long will the review take and will it help current PMS members or just make recommendations for the future?
Anyway if the story is reported by the Today programme this should increase the pressure to provide some help for the beleagured PMS members.

Well done. :T :T :T

goodbyepci

Amontylado wrote: »

Hello again. I noticed an interview by Evan Davis with Gordon Brown in which GB stated that 'No saver has lost any money...' so I emailed Evan Davis with a brief summary of the PMS situation. He has now replied saying that he will get the Today programme on to it.
As the Treasury review was announced on 20 Feb this may reduce the newsworthiness of the story as now the government appears to be doing something - but how long will the review take and will it help current PMS members or just make recommendations for the future?
Anyway if the story is reported by the Today programme this should increase the pressure to provide some help for the beleagured PMS members.

Amontylado
Please do you have contact details for Evan Davis, I can feel another letter coming on.

Just to back you up

crazymess

goodbyepci wrote: »

Amontylado
Please do you have contact details for Evan Davis, I can feel another letter coming on.

Just to back you up

Me too!!!! Thank you everyone, those doing work in the background and for all the posts - I'm sure this has been a support to all those who are very worried at this time - to at least know that there are some doing their utmost to resolve this situation.

Amontylado

Hi
I don't think we should bombard Evan Davis with letters/emails etc. - it might be more of a turn-off. Perhaps we could persuade Martin himself to contact him on our behalf? He's an experienced media spokesperson after all. Anybody know how we might do that?
However it's not for me to prevent anyone from contacting him; you can all make up your own minds about that. I would just say if anyone does write please make it concise and stick to the big issues. I'm sure he won't read pages of rant and I do find some of the posts on here a bit rambling and bogged down in detail.
My method for contacting just about anybody is to try the normal email address formula for contacting someone in any big UK organisation, which is firstname.lastname@organisation.co.uk . In this case Evan.Davis@bbc.co.uk obviously worked!

Amontylado

In case it helps, the following was my original email to Evan Davis:

Dear Mr Davis

It has been drawn to my attention that in a report of your interview with Gordon Brown, published in the Times on 24th January, Mr Brown stated that
'No saver has lost any money...'.

I know you have moved on from being the Economics Editor so perhaps the following is of no interest to you but as it affects my elderly mother among many other elderly savers who will lose at least 40% of their savings, I am trying to make this information more widely known in order to bring pressure on the government to help.
You may be aware of the collapse of the Presbyterian Mutual Society in Northern Ireland in November 2008, where thousands of savers, many of them elderly and simply looking for a safe place for their retirement nest eggs, have lost access to their funds and may only receive 'up to' 60% of their money back and this over a period of years.

The PMS was promoted by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) as a safe haven, ultra-cautious and lending only to churches and congregations, where only Presbyterians could deposit money. When the government announced that it would underwrite the banks' savings liabilities this triggered a run on the PMS, which was not backed by the FSCS as I believe mutual societies cannot be included. The PMS did not have enough liquid funds to meet the demand and went into administration, for which an emergency law had to be passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The PMS' assets are mainly in property, the value of which has of course sunk considerably and does not match the PMS' liabilities.

The PCI now denies any links with the PMS and offers nothing but 'pastoral support' to congregation members. Many elderly savers are now in dire need, having relied on their savings to supplement whatever pension they may have and as any monies returned will be over a period of years, obviously many will not live to see any money at all. There is an online petition to ask the government to give mutual societies the same support that they have given the banks, which has over 5000 signatures but so far no response from anyone in government. There may be other mutual societies in similar peril and I hope that this is something which may be worth investigation by the media.

Many thanks for your attention so far.

Yours sincerely

fivealive_2

Amontylado wrote: »

In case it helps, the following was my original email to Evan Davis:

Dear Mr Davis

It has been drawn to my attention that in a report of your interview with Gordon Brown, published in the Times on 24th January, Mr Brown stated that
'No saver has lost any money...'.

I know you have moved on from being the Economics Editor so perhaps the following is of no interest to you but as it affects my elderly mother among many other elderly savers who will lose at least 40% of their savings, I am trying to make this information more widely known in order to bring pressure on the government to help.
You may be aware of the collapse of the Presbyterian Mutual Society in Northern Ireland in November 2008, where thousands of savers, many of them elderly and simply looking for a safe place for their retirement nest eggs, have lost access to their funds and may only receive 'up to' 60% of their money back and this over a period of years.

The PMS was promoted by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) as a safe haven, ultra-cautious and lending only to churches and congregations, where only Presbyterians could deposit money. When the government announced that it would underwrite the banks' savings liabilities this triggered a run on the PMS, which was not backed by the FSCS as I believe mutual societies cannot be included. The PMS did not have enough liquid funds to meet the demand and went into administration, for which an emergency law had to be passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The PMS' assets are mainly in property, the value of which has of course sunk considerably and does not match the PMS' liabilities.

The PCI now denies any links with the PMS and offers nothing but 'pastoral support' to congregation members. Many elderly savers are now in dire need, having relied on their savings to supplement whatever pension they may have and as any monies returned will be over a period of years, obviously many will not live to see any money at all. There is an online petition to ask the government to give mutual societies the same support that they have given the banks, which has over 5000 signatures but so far no response from anyone in government. There may be other mutual societies in similar peril and I hope that this is something which may be worth investigation by the media.

Many thanks for your attention so far.

Yours sincerely

Concise and comprehensive.

Well done & thank-you.

Amontylado

Amontylado wrote: »

My method for contacting just about anybody is to try the normal email address formula for contacting someone in any big UK organisation, which is [EMAIL="firstname.lastname@organisation.co.uk"]firstname.lastname@organisation.co.uk[/EMAIL] . In this case [EMAIL="Evan.Davis@bbc.co.uk"]Evan.Davis@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL] obviously worked!

This approach may work equally well for Robert Peston, Declan Curry, Andrew Neil (though he may be Andrew.X.Neil as there may be more than one Andrew Neil in the BBC) etc. etc. if anyone feels like contacting them...particularly Declan Curry as a fellow countryman? Probably better if it's someone other than me - to show that I'm not a lone voice.

cautious_bob

I've been following this thread,just out of curiosity-and wondering if anyones thought of approaching the Radio4 programme Moneybox-I think the presenter is called Paul Lewis? -and they had an article on today in sort of related area-woman who had lost her savings in the crash of Lehman Bros.
A bit of media embarrassment.... never a bad thing......

amadan22

is it my imagination or was it always pms and not pms LTD!? as is now? i take it this is legally relevant? i think the ltd occurred after admin. i could be mad though.