PM urged to restore pensions to soldiers’ widows

THE PRIME Minister has been urged to step in to restore military pensions to soldiers’ widows who have remarried.

War Widows’ Pensions had been paid to the wives of hundreds of soldiers killed in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and other trouble spots over the last 40 years, but those who remarried or cohabited between 1973 and 2015 had to surrender them.

The rules were changed five years ago to allow survivors’ pensions to be paid for life, but about 280 widows who had previously remarried were excluded.

Among them was Linda McHugh, from Yorkshire, whose husband, Trooper John Gibbons of the 17/21st Lancers, was killed in an IRA bomb attack close to Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, in 1973.

Widowed at 21 with a threemonth-old son, she said the pension had been an acknowledgement of her loss, and its removal was at odds with her husband’s belief that she and his son would be looked after in the event of his death.

“When the Government changed the rules in 2015, it was like having an emotional carrot dangled in front of us,” she said. “We have been told many times that they were trying to sort something out. It’s been like a roller coaster up and down, feeling close to a compassionate result at times and then our hopes being dashed again.”

The South East Fermanagh Foundation, which speaks for victims across the UK, has described the situation as a “national scandal” and urged the Prime Minister to step in.

Its director of services, Kenny Donaldson, said a one-off compensation arrangement should be reached, as well as the immediate restoration of the pension.

“Removing pensions was antifamily and anti-marriage and was shameful,” he said. “The familiar and over-used line that pensions cannot be provided retrospectively does not hold water.

“We need creative thinking from government around putting this matter right, find the mechanism to support a cohort of women who have been treated in a manner not fitting to the service.”

The Ministry of Defence said it was “considering alternative methods” to support the widows.