War Widows (Hansard, 4 March 1985)

§ Mr. Geoffrey Dickens (Littleborough and Saddleworth)

I am delighted to be able to open this Adjournment debate on behalf of the British war widows.

During this debate I wish to bring to the attention of Her Majesty's Government the financial plight of British war widows in general and my constituent, Mrs. Ivy Cairns, in particular.

It can never be denied that we owe an enormous moral debt of honour to all the widows of those who fell in the service of their country in the first and second world wars. Indeed, without their supreme sacrifice, hon. Members of this House would not have had the privilege of serving in a freely elected Parliament. Today's war widows have security and care but not so the widows of the two world wars.

What causes a lady like my constituent, Mrs. Ivy Cairns, to write to Her Majesty the Queen and the Prime Minister returning the war medals of her first husband? It is a very sad story but needs to be told in my effort to help Mrs. Cairns and many other war widows similarly placed. Sadly, Mrs. Cairns lost her first husband, who died fighting for his country in France during the second world war in 1940. Mrs. Cairns was then awarded £1 per week war widow's pension until she remarried a retired police officer in 1945. Upon remarriage Mrs. Cairns was awarded a £50 pay-off gratuity from the War Office who then discharged their responsibility in law in favour of her new husband. Mrs. Cairns has calculated that this has saved the Treasury over £40,000 in war widow's pension.

Sadly, again, Mrs. Cairns was widowed for a second time in 1960 and was not recognised as a police widow because her husband had not been a serving police officer at the time of their marriage. My constituent therefore was not recognised as a "police widow" or as a "war widow", so from 1960 until 1971 she was completely without any kind of widow's pension. In 1971 she was awarded £1.32 per week as an age-related pension.

If Mrs. Cairns' first husband had been an officer, she would not have received the small gratuity but, under a right inherited from the sevice Departments many years ago, she may have had her war widows' pension restored at the discretion of the Secretary of State on the death of her second husband. This is unfair and unjust because many "other rank soldiers" conscripted during wartime came back into industry and commerce to rise to the very top and even sit in the British Cabinet. So prospects for an officer's widow could not be said to be superior.

Mrs. Cairns' soldier husband was only in the Army for a few months so could not earn a commission. He was killed holding the last line against the advancing German army at Dunkirk, killed so that thousands could be saved in the armada of small boats.

Other countries award so many special concessions to their war widows that they are financially secure. They consider that if a women is widowed through her husband's war-time service they owe her a great debt for the remainder of her life. Therefore, if a war widow remarries and is widowed again, she is immediately reinstated so that she can continue to be protected as a war widow.

754 Mrs. Christa Gardiewski of Frankfurt, a German war widow, freely confesses that she is better treated than British war widows.

Italy not only reinstates its war widows on the death of a second husband but upon that remarriage part of a women's war widow's pension continues to be paid to her if she marries a man of low income.

France has superior arrangements to the United Kingdom, and the Australians have an eight-page list of concessions given to their war widows. I could give many more examples.

This country has betrayed British war widows of the two world wars. Because I feel so angry with successive Governments I should today be calling for parity with widows of service men killed in Northern Ireland or in the Falkland Islands Task Force; and so on; improvement of the status of those devoted widows who have nursed badly war-disabled ex-servicemen until bereavement, and stopping the confiscation of the war widows pension during hospitalisation, and so on.

Consideration of those matters cannot be left much longer, because we have 65,000 world war widows who are dying at the rate of 5,000 each year.

However, I shall concentrate on my demand that all war widows who remarry and who are widowed again be immediately reinstated as war widows; in other words, the state shall always accept Mal responsibility for their widowhood. That would help Mrs. Cairns and so many like her who do not feel bitter but just disappointed in their country.

Let me quote from the letter sent from Buckingham Palace at the end of the war to each widow. It said: The Queen and I offer you our heartfelt sympathy in your great sorrow. We pray that your country's gratitude for a life so nobly given in its service may bring you some measure of consolation. I ask my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security, to dwell on that sentence which talks of "your country's gratitude".

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mr. Ray Whitney)

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Littleborough and Saddleworth (Mr. Dickens) for initiating this debate about war widows. Indeed, in this year which marks the 40th anniversary of the ending of the second world war, it is particularly appropriate that we should remind ourselves of the debt which we owe to those who lost their husbands in the service of this country. War widows have always been regarded as very special. I entirely endorse the sentiments of my hon. Friend that it is proper that that should be so. Nothing can compensate them for their terrible loss. The special circumstances of their bereavement are, however, recognised in the preferential provisions made for them under the war pensions scheme administered by my Department. There are some 67,000 war widows today, and hon. Members will wish to know just what they receive under that scheme.

First, there is the standard war widow's pension, which is currently £46.55 a week for the widow of a private soldier; other widows also receive additions for their late husband's service rank. My hon. Friend expressed his particular concern about the elderly war widow. I very much share this concern. Elderly war widows are 755 generally recognised to have greater needs and, for that reason, they receive special age allowances in addition to the pensions that I have already mentioned.

The age allowance is currently £5 a week at age 65. It is increased to £10 a week at age 70, and to £12.50 at age 80. Those allowances were significantly improved last November, when the new tier of £12.50 was also introduced for the very elderly—an increase of almost £4 a week. I am very glad that the Government were able to provide this additional help for elderly war widows. It means that a war widow aged 65 or over receives between £51.55 and £59.05 a week at least — this is, up to £23.25 a week more than her national insurance counterpart. Furthermore, as hon. Members will know, one of the first acts of this Government was to free war widows' pensions from income tax.

My hon. Friend has suggested that we are less generous in the provision that we make in this country for our war widows, as compared with other countries. I do not accept that. Such comparisons are not easy to make; one needs to look not only at the rates of pensions and allowances and the cost of living in those countries, but at such things as the conditions of entitlement to pension, whether or not it is taxable and whether or not it is means-tested in any way. Generally speaking, our provisions for war widows compare very favourably with those of other countries. I reject my hon. Friend's assertion that our widows have been betrayed.

In addition to the pensions payable under the war pensions scheme, for the widows of men who served in the armed forces after March 1973 a pension is also provided under the occupational pension scheme for the forces, which is administered by the Ministry of Defence. The changes to the armed forces pension scheme in 1973 represented a substantial improvement in the occupational pension provision for service men and their families. However, as my hon. Friend has pointed out, they inevitably lead to comparisons being drawn with the provision for service men, and their widows, whose seervice ended before that date.

Improvements in occupational pension schemes are not normally made retrospective; and the cost of doing so in this case would have been prohibitive — up to £600 million a year in current terms. That could not be afforded then and it cannot be afforded now. I am sure that hon. Members will agree that it would have been wrong to have refrained from making those major improvements, just because they could not be made retrospective. That would not have been in the best interests of current service men and their families.

I should like to mention a further example of the Government's concern for war widows. Last October my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces announced that, beginning this year, the Government would be making an annual sum available to the Royal British Legion to assist war widows to visit their husbands' graves overseas. The sum for 1985–86 is £150,000. The Royal British Legion has agreed to assume responsibility for making all the necessary arrangements for these visits, including the handling of applications and the selection of countries and cemeteries to be visited.

756 My hon. Friend raised the particular question of the rules which apply to war widow's pension where a widow re-marries and is subsequently widowed a second time. I should explain to hon. Members that we regard the war widow's pension as a means of providing for her maintenance; it is a case of the state stepping in to take over the responsibility that would have fallen to her late husband. If she subsequently marries again, her new husband assumes responsibility for her support, and war widow's pension ceases — although any allowances in payment to her for the children of her late husband continue to be paid.

On remarriage, a widow whose former husband held a rank other than that of an officer receives a gratuity equivalent to one year's war widow's pension. Should she be so unfortunate as to be widowed a second time she cannot have her war widow's pension reinstated. She would of course, normally be eligible for national insurance widow's pension. Widows of officers do not receive a gratuity when they remarry. Instead, as my hon. Friend has mentioned, there is the facility for them to have their war widow's pension reinstated if their second husbands die. I must stress, however, that this reinstatement of pension is not automatic. It is made only in cases where there is shown to be a financial need. About 120 officers' widows currently receive a reinstated pension. This usually amounts to a topping up of the national insurance widow's pension and any other income to the level of their war widow's pension.

My hon. Friend quoted the particular, very sad, case of Mrs. Cairns. Let me say that I have the greatest sympathy for that lady. She suffered the most grevious loss when her young husband of only a few months was tragically killed during the second world war. When she remarried some five years later she would of course have been aware that she would thereby relinquish her war widow's pension. Subsequently, however, she had the great misfortune to be widowed a second time; and she was unable to receive either a pension from her second husband's employment, because he had already retired when they married, or a national insurance widow's pension because he was over the age of 65 in 1948 when the scheme began. However, even if Mrs. Cairns' first husband had been an officer, the question of re-instatement of her war widow's pension would, as I have explained, have depended upon her being in financial need.

My hon. Friend has described as anomalous the difference in treatment between the widows of officers and those of other ranks in this respect. These particular provisions date back some 60 years, and the reasons for the difference are largely historical. I accept that there may be thought to be little justification for such a distinction today, and I can assure my hon. Friend that I shall certainly reflect further on the points which he has made.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for having raised this matter and I am glad of this opportunity to assure him and other hon. Members of the Government's continuing commitment to the cause of war widows and the war disabled.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty-nine minutes to Eleven o'clock.