MPs and veterans’
these women but now I feel that someone cares about us.
“We should all get the War Widow’s Pension, whether we remarry or if we don’t remarry.
“This issue highlighted by the Daily Express has been my bible these last few days.
“It’s such a weight lifted, knowing someone has finally taken an interest.”
The Government changed the law in 2015 to allow war widows to keep the tax-free “killed in active service” pension for the rest of their lives, even if they remarried.
But 300 widows including Mrs Holt, who found new partners before that date, missed out because the law was not backdated, which saved the Treasury about £3million a year.
The only way they can reclaim their War Widow’s Pension, which is worth an average £7,000 a year, is if they divorce their new spouses and end up single again.
The Daily Express and the War Widows’ Association (WWA) are urging the Government to use the centenary of Armistice Day to rethink this law.
Mrs Holt expressed her gratitude for the crusade and explained how important it was for the Government to now act.
“The support the paper has given to the war widows discriminated against in 2015 has already changed my life,” she said. “I was granted a War Widows Pension by the Royal Navy in 1988 when my husband died and the Royal Navy accepted liability for his death.
“It was a long and painful death from myeloma and took its toll on us as a family.”
Recalling first husband Ken’s battle against cancer, she said: “It was such a terrible time. My youngest daughter Tiffany was doing her O-levels and her Daddy was in hospital.
“She was so stressed she developed ulcerative colitis, so she was in hospital too.
“Ken kept on working right up until his diagnosis. He was unwell for four years. The whole experience for me was absolute turmoil THE Daily Express crusade to win back the War Widow’s Pension has won huge support from across the political divide.
MPs and veterans’ groups have got behind the call to reinstate pensions to those widows who remarried before 2015.
They include David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth, who said £3million a year to pay the 300 women their War Widow’s Pension was not that much considering the UK spent £12billion on foreign aid.
He added: “It seems and had a profound affect on our family.”
When Ken left the Navy, Mrs Holt received his £20,000 gratuity payment and when he died she was entitled to a £7,000 tax-free compensation payment.
The Navy took responsibility for his death, which entitled Mrs Holt to the War Widow’s Pension, for those with husbands who were “killed on active service”.
She said: “They said his cancer was attributable to his service and they would award me a War Widow’s Pension as compensation. I had it until I was remarried 18 months later.” Tim Holt, later to be her second hus-