Trump sues the BBC for $10bn – What impact does this have on the BBC Pension Scheme?
What is the lawsuit about?
On 28 October 2024 BBC Panorama broadcast a documentary called “Trump: A Second Chance?” just days before the US presidential election. In his speech, Trump told a Washington DC crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”. More than 50 minutes later in the same speech, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
Criticism of the edit emerged more than a year later when a leaked internal memo was published by the Telegraph newspaper. This led to the resignations of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness. BBC chairman Samir Shah apologised for the edit, which he described as an “error of judgement”.
Trump filed a lawsuit in Florida and is suing the BBC for $10bn for defamation over the way the Panorama episode edited the two sections of his speech together, which made it appear that he had directly encouraged his supporters to storm the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
The lawsuit is expected to go to trial in February 2027 and is scheduled to last two weeks. The BBC has said it will be defending the case.
Will the BBC Pension Scheme be impacted if the BBC loses the lawsuit?
Many of our members have expressed concern that if Trump is successful in his lawsuit and the BBC must pay up, how will this impact the BBC Pension Scheme, and our pensions. Fortunately, although this may impact the finances of the BBC, it is unlikely to have any direct impact on the BBC Pension Scheme.
The BBC Pension Scheme is established and governed by a Trust Deed and Rules. The Trustee of the Scheme is a company, BBC Pension Trust Ltd (the Trustee), and the Trustee acts through its Board of Directors (Trustee Directors). There are eleven Trustee Directors: three independent Trustee Directors (including the Chair), four senior BBC employees appointed by the BBC, three elected by members, and one elected by pensioners,
The Scheme’s last Interim Actuarial Valuation at 31 March 2025 valued the Scheme at £12.6bn, with a small surplus of £418m of assets over its liabilities. Therefore, if the BBC ceased to exist for whatever reason, the Scheme could continue to operate quite independently of the BBC. If the Scheme continues to be in surplus, then the full benefits promised under the Scheme could continue to be paid.
Pension Protection Fund
At the very worst, in the unlikely event that the BBC did become insolvent and there were insufficient funds available to support the benefit promise, the Scheme would fall into the Pension Protection Fund (https://www.ppf.co.uk/ ). This government fund would take over responsibility to pay pensions, although they might not necessarily be at the full value.
The future
Whilst our benefits appear to be protected from any lawsuit by Donald Trump, the BBCPA will continue to monitor the situation and keep members informed if there is any threat to our pensions.
