News releases
General Sir Roger Wheeler Calls for Reform of Armed Forces Pensions.
At a lunch today in the House of Lords, General Sir Roger Wheeler called on the government, to abolish the now out-of-date rule that confiscates pensions from the vast majority of forces widows who wish to remarry and to abolish the humiliating means-testing of widows before reinstatement of a confiscated pension.
Sir Roger, President of the Forces Pension Society (FPS), said: “…by removing the archaic surrender rule from the new pension scheme, the government has clearly recognised the practice is draconian and socially unacceptable, and yet officials still resist resolving this matter for widows who remain on the older scheme. But even that is overshadowed by the imposition of means testing before reinstatement of a confiscated pension. That is intrusive, mean spirited and morally wrong.”
Sir Roger also pointed out that the cost of rectifying the current sorry state of affairs was a trifling sum in the context of government expenditure. He concluded: “…on average these pensions are only some £3,000 per annum and that only about 15 pensions per year are confiscated.”
A full transcript of Sir Roger’s speech is provided below. For photographs and for more information, please contact Major-General John Moore-Bick, General Secretary, the Forces Pension Society, on 020 7582 0469, Email JohnMB@forpen.co.uk.
Speech by FPS President, General Sir Roger Wheeler
My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Once more we are gathered here thanks to the kind sponsorship of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Craig of Radley one of our Vice Presidents. On behalf of us all I must again thank Chris Hever and his staff for a splendid lunch which we are about to eat. We come here with serious intent, but we do enjoy coming, and since I stood before you one year ago much has happened in the Forces Pension Society, some of which you see around you today.
We have almost completed our facelift which we embarked on last year, perhaps the most important of which is our sparkling new website. During the year we have seen our concept of the Unique Nature of Military Service moulded and adopted by COBSEO; it is widely accepted and continues to raise much interest. We have also developed a broad range of branded affinity schemes to benefit our members, and we have been creating our strategy for addressing outstanding pension issues, to which I will return shortly.
We have read with great interest the several papers which have been published recently affecting the Service and ex-Service community. I refer to the Governance of Britain White Paper, the National Recognition of our Armed Forces Report, the HCDC report into Recruiting and Retention and most especially Command 7472 – the Nation’s Commitment: Cross Government Support to our Armed Forces, their Families and Veterans. We have also followed the ongoing debate about the military covenant and how it is understood by Whitehall, Parliament and the public. We note the current RBL campaign and add that pension issues are often at the root of the poverty they describe. We welcome all these initiatives and applaud their genuine attempt to recognize, in a wide variety of ways, the unique nature of military service.
Current work by the government, understandably, looks to the future. But a successful future depends upon a comfortable resolution of issues in the past. And it is the past which is once more the focus of my attention today, or more especially the vulnerable people left behind by legislative improvements. I am talking about the widows of Servicemen and I touched on this last year.
Some of you may recall that I mentioned the arbitrary change from 60 to 65 as the age at which a divorced pension credit member can receive her share of her former husband’s pension. I am delighted that that problem has been solved by a ruling of the Department of Work and Pensions, that the age of qualification will be 55.
But there is a much bigger problem I want to raise today which is far more discriminatory. We call it Widows’ Pensions for Life. This is a phenomenon which potentially applies to the vast majority of Service widows. It means in a nutshell that, if the widow of a Serviceman whose husband dies from causes not directly attributable to his military duty chooses to remarry or cohabit, she loses her widow’s pension. It is confiscated; taken from her and returned to the Treasury.
It will not happen in the far future, thanks to the new Armed Forces pension scheme, which is a huge improvement and one that I acknowledge gratefully. But it does happen NOW. Furthermore if the widow I describe outlives (or divorces) her second husband, she only gets her original widow’s pension back after a means test - it is not automatic. Imagine the scene – this vulnerable and possibly elderly lady is investigated to decide if her second husband left her well off or not. Think how she feels, imagine how her family feels. Should it be happening in the United Kingdom?
I might just add that if her former husband had died on operational service then the government would excuse her from the means test. These rules are clearly outdated, unfair and simply wrong. What’s more this issue is not just something from the recent past. These cases; will be around for another 40 or 50 years. Does the government really want that dismal legacy?
I put it to you that this is a betrayal of the unique nature of military service and is definitely not honouring the covenant. It even encourages people to break the law by not declaring their status.
It is this last point that I want to stress again today, and emphasise what the government has said many times this year. Military service, as distinct from any other public service, is not just a career, because military service is unique. Furthermore just because one widow’s husband survived conflict, it does not mean that he was any less brave than the widow’s husband who died on duty; he was just luckier.
We know that the MOD is against further change. However, I would ask the government to consider how many teachers, policemen, nurses, firemen, civil servants or any other equally valued public servants uproot their wives and families up to 20 times in a career, thereby ensuring that they can neither work consistently, nor build up any private or occupational pension. There is no read across to the other public services.
Since the inception of AFPS05 the Forces Pension Society has campaigned for all widows to be treated equally and to keep their pensions for the rest of their lives. Indeed by removing the archaic surrender rule from the new pension scheme, the government has clearly recognised the practice is draconian and socially unacceptable, and yet officials still resist resolving this matter for widows who remain on the older scheme. But even that is overshadowed by the imposition of means testing before reinstatement of a confiscated pension. That is intrusive, mean spirited and morally wrong.
I simply ask the government to give very serious thought to the abolition of the confiscation of widows’ pensions, noting that on average these pensions are only some £3,000 per annum and that only about 15 pensions per year are confiscated. We acknowledge that many improvements have come with the new pension scheme, but can we please have a resolution of this unfair situation.
Ladies and gentlemen please take a press pack as you leave after lunch, it contains a copy of my words, and now may I invite you all to tuck in.
