Military wives missing out on pension rights

Four in five military wives who travelled abroad with their husbands are missing out on £30,000 in state pension, figures suggest.

A system was introduced last year to allow Armed Forces spouses to get National Insurance credit for the years where they accompanied their partners while they served abroad, and were unable to work. Royal London, the insurer, found only 3,765 women out of a possible 20,000 had so far applied for the credit. It said: “This is a very good scheme but the take-up so far has been very poor.”