The “perfect storm” facing the Church of England Pensions Board as it seeks to fund retirement housing should be addressed by drawing on the Church Commissioners’ assets, two clergy bodies argued this week.
The Pensions Board’s “Enabling Choice” consultation warns that the current provision — the CHARM scheme, which enables clergy to rent a property from the Board — has become unsustainable (News, 17 November 2023, 24 November 2023). Its chair, Clive Mather, has referred to a dramatic rise in costs through inflation and interest rates. Demand was said to be “unprecedented” last year (Features, 28 July 2023, News, 13 October 2023).
In its response to the consultation, which ended on Wednesday, the Retired Clergy Association of the Church of England and the Church of England Employee and Clergy Advocates, part of the Faith Workers Branch of Unite, write that the Board’s proposals “represent a radical break in the covenant of care between the Church of England and its clergy as to how they will be supported in retirement . . . bringing fresh uncertainty and anxiety to those clergy who have no other viable means of securing housing in retirement, and fuelling the broader perception among clergy that their ministry is no longer understood or valued by the institutional Church”.
The “perfect storm” facing the Church of England Pensions Board as it seeks to fund retirement housing should be addressed by drawing on the Church Commissioners’ assets, two clergy bodies argued this week https://t.co/0XqivC2EP6
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 31, 2024