John Hannett – Usdaw General Secretary says: "We are pleased that Sir Philip has finally put his hand in his pocket, having promised to 'sort' the pension scheme last June. It is difficult to understand why this saga has been allowed to continue and why we have had to campaign for so long to get justice for our members. Whilst the details are still not clear, we sincerely hope that this settlement does provide the BHS pensioners with a better deal than they would have got through the Pension Protection Fund.

"Through no fault of their own, 11,000 loyal BHS staff lost their jobs after people at the top of the business seemingly played a wild game of monopoly with their livelihoods. They were put out of work last summer and left with a long period of uncertainty about the future of their income in retirement.

"If this payment means there is no loss of benefits to the members of the BHS pension scheme, then this is welcome if not long overdue news."

Notes for editors:

Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fourth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 440,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 17% in the last five years and by nearly a third in the last decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the Union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion