BBC ditches Money Box show about its pension cuts

An internal edition of Radio 4's Money Box about the BBC's controversial plan to cut back final salary pension payments to staff has been ditched after management asked to vet the content before transmission. Paul Lewis, presenter of Money Box, sent an internal email explaining that the special edition would not be going ahead, after a decision taken earlier in the week "at the highest level" within the BBC that it could only do so "if it was pre-approved by internal communications". As a result, the production team had decided to cancel the show. "These decisions were all taken way above me, though of course as a journalist I would never have been willing to make a programme which would be subject to vetting by PR people," said Lewis in the email seen by MediaGuardian.co.uk. "As someone who is not a member of the pension scheme I have had to find out a great deal about it, and the plans for change, in the last week. I am disappointed that information will not now be made use of for the good of the staff and the BBC." Last month the BBC proposed closing its final salary pension scheme to new employees and cap contributions to existing members as part of moves to tackle a £2bn deficit. The proposals, which broadcasting unions have said could lead to industrial action , means that many BBC staff are likely to see the annual amount the scheme pays out on their retirement dramatically reduced. "A comprehensive internal communications plan is already underway which allows staff to put questions directly to senior managers," said a spokesman for the BBC. "A programme idea by the Money Box team was one of the options considered; however, a live phone-in was already scheduled, as we have done in the past, where staff can put any questions to senior managers in an open and frank manner." The BBC said that there had already been 23 seminars across UK about the proposed changes with another 100 planned until the end of August. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".