Committee publication · Estimate memoranda · 24 February 2026
Supplementary Estimate Memorandum 2025-26 - Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme
From: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Summary
This supplementary estimate memorandum requests £1,500.4m in resource funding and £1,864.0m in net cash requirement for the Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme in 2025-26. The scheme is an unfunded, closed defined-benefit vehicle paying pensions earned before April 2012 to approximately 342,000 members. The memorandum reports a £100m decrease in cash requirement from the main estimate due to lower-than-forecast benefit payments.
Key findings
- Net cash requirement of £1,864.0m requested, down £100m (5.1%) from main estimate 2025-26 due to lower actual benefit payments
- Resource AME funding of £1,500.4m sought, unchanged from main estimate but up 5.9% from 2024-25 outturn
- Scheme liabilities valued at £28.2bn as of 31 March 2025, down £500m from prior year; 342,000 scheme members (down 7,000 from 2024)
- RMSPS is closed unfunded defined-benefit scheme with no active members; expenditure classified as AME to allow revision based on uncontrollable factors (retirement rates, mortality, pension increases)
- Administration costs included in Cabinet Office main estimate; no future spending plans beyond current estimate due to annual AME re-forecasting
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Cabinet Office, Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme, Catherine Little, HM Treasury, House of Commons Scrutiny Unit
Notable line
“The Scheme acts as a run off vehicle for historic liabilities, paying pension benefits earned prior to April”
Key Quotes
“The Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme (RMSPS) vote ('the Vote') solely funds the RMSPS. This is an unfunded, closed, defined benefit scheme with no active members.”
“Expenditure covered by the Vote is not subject to pre-set Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) control totals but is classified as resource Annually Managed Expenditure”
“… the factors that drive the expenditure and cash payments covered by the Vote are largely outside the control of the scheme administrators; for example retirement rates, pension increases, mortality etc.”
“There has been a decrease of £100 million in NCR since the Main Estimate due to less benefit payments paid than forecast during the Main Estimate process.”
“The latest accounting valuation of scheme liabilities was £28.2 billion at 31 March 2025 (2024: £28.7 billion). At that time there were approximately 342,000 scheme members”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗