Veterans fight for pension rights

By Tony Watts - Editor - 03/02/2010

 Hundreds of thousands of former soldiers, sailors and Air Force personnel are being denied the right to a contributory pension, despite some having made more than 20 years of contributions.

 

Campaigners from the Armed Forces Pension Group have asked Mature Times to make their cause known on their behalf as, in their words, the “national media ignore us”, and they are hoping for a figurehead to come forward to lead their campaign, as Joanna Lumley did so successfully for the Gurkhas.

 

The situation at present is that any service personnel who left after April 1975 will receive a pension – in accordance with the number of years served, and contributions paid. Anyone who left before April 1975 receives absolutely nothing – unless they completed a full 22 years’ service. In the case of officers, a full 16 years are required.

 

In the words of campaign co-ordinator Dave Langham, who himself served in Northern Ireland, “We know of people who left just before the cut off time having served just a few weeks short of 22 years - and don’t get a penny.”

 

We were told by an MoD spokesman: “Wherever changes are introduced there must be a set date from when they apply. Inevitably there will be some people who will fall on the wrong side of that date, but it has always been the policy of public service pension schemes that changes are not implemented retrospectively. The costs of doing so would be significant, and for this reason, the Government has no plans to grant retrospective improvement to pension rights.”

 

Leeds MP Colin Challen is leading the campaign in Parliament and introduced an Early Day Motion signed by 104 MPs.

 

“We are talking about upwards of half a million men and women being affected,” says Mr Langham, “from 1949 onwards. These are not National Service conscripts, but brave men and women who put their lives on the line in places like Korea, Aden,  Cyprus and Northern Ireland.” In fact there were over 1,100 British deaths in Korea alone - a war that receives little coverage today.

 

“There was rarely a time when our forces weren’t involved in some active service throughout that time, and even when they were not fighting, they experienced a lot of hardships,” says Mr Langham.

 

“The Government says that it would cost too much to pay a pension to these people,” adds Colin Challen, “but these people contributed towards a pension which they have never received. We think the gross figure is around £1.5 billion a year, but in fact that figure would be much smaller because some people would pay tax on that pension and it would also reduce pension credit payments for others.”

 

“All we are asking for here,” says Dave Langham, “is equality.”

 

If you contributed to a service pension but left before 1975 and have never benefited, you can write to Dave Langham at 2, Commer Street, Morley, Leeds LS27 8HY, telephone 0113 238 1312 or email davidplangham@btinternet.com.

 

 

Mature Times says:

Of course there has to be a ‘cut off point’ for any pension scheme, but why 1975… when so many men and women paid money into a scheme before that time – and will now never receive a penny’s benefit? This is a shoddy way to treat people who put their lives on their line defending our nation’s interests.