June 2010 Letter from HPPA, an Appeal and some News

This mail is from David Bell, Steve Spillane and Ian Young - there is a quite lot of content, and we would really appreciate you taking the time to read it all.

Since our last letter, we have spend quite a bit of time clarifying our objectives ,and this is our next step along the way to building a much closer and mutually beneficial relationship with Hewlett-Packard.

The aims of the Hewlett Packard Pension Association are:

1. To bring benefits to Pension Plan Members.

Such benefits will include preferential purchase arrangements for HP products and Services, and products and services from other suppliers.

2. To have HPUK Pension Plan Members seen as assets by both HP and the communities with which pension plan members interact.

To this end, the Association will encourage and support the volunteering activities of members, and facilitate making such efforts a beneficiary of the rewards available
through the HP Volunteering and Reward Programs.

3. To build a strong and productive relationship with Pension Plan Trustees.

The Association anticipates being a voice of Pension Plan Members in interaction with the Plan Trustees. We will also aim to be of assistance in Plan Member/Trustee
relations.

HPPA Membership is open to all members of HP UK Pension Plans.

A key to the success of the Association is that its membership is substantial, and we plan to expand our activities - and to recruit members from the thousands of past Hewlett Packard and Digital employees, in the first instance.

To do that professionally, we need access to funding, which brings us to the Appeal.

The three of us have carried the costs so far, and we put our hands up to do that, but now we are stepping up a gear. We would, therefore, appreciate you sending us a donation to help with ongoing expenses.

The people who have donated already have given between £5 and £50, but we would like everyone to consider giving  £5 or £10 - this is your chance to give us a helping hand.

There are three ways you can donate:

1) With a debit or credit card into our Paypal account. Go to:

http://tinyurl.com/donate-HP-retiree 

and follow the instructions.

2) By bank transfer to the HSBC:

Account Name:      HPPA
Account Number:   74193032
Sort Code:              40-38-04

3) By cheque, payable to HPPA, to:

Ian Young
10 Halfacre Close
Spencers Wood
Reading  RG7 1DZ

So far, the HP Worldwide Retiree Programs Manager has come up trumps, and provided us with a good laptop and projector for administration and roadshows. With the donations we have received so far, we are setting up a website, with membership and email capability, and you will hear more of that later.

Now comes the news!

We have found the elusive Digital Handbook!

Many thanks to Suzanne Ingman and Nigel Bains for finding the critical volume. Many thanks also to Jac Chohan, for back-up literature. The key section in the book
refers to redundancy payments as a contractual right, and not a discretionary payment, so quite a few employees will now sleep a bit easier.

Lots of others have offered pensions and employment literature, and we have filed all that information. The breadth of documentation coming in is quite amazing.

Around 400 people have signed up with with HP Retiree Program, which is great, but we would like one more push to have as many retired folks as possible on board. Just in case you have lost our last mail, go to:

http://www.hp.com/retiree/news/feedback_signup.html

If you are presented with an authorisation screen, use:

username      hpway
password      toplay

to gain access. If you have retired people in your address book who are not on our mailing list right now, please let them know what to do.

If you are a deferred pensioner, you should have received a letter from the pension plan administrators, telling you about a new pension forecasting tool. If you did not receive a letter, or find that you cannot use the tool, then mail

digital@xafinitypaymaster.com

and the folks there will help you out.

And, lastly, if you do not fill out a tax return any more, it might be a good idea to check your tax coding for this year. There is a built-in assumption in the Revenue's computer that all pensions will increase year-on-year. Check last year's code with this year's.

All feedback to steve@spillane.com  and   ianyoung@iyoung.co.uk

Best regards,