Lord Chelwoodasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many war widows there are; what their estimate is of the diminishing annual cost of uprating them all to the latest rate (a) retrospectively and (b) from today; and whether they will give us similar figures for Great War widows.
§ The Minister of State for Defence Procurement (Lord Trefgarne)Figures are not readily available in the form requested. However, the additional cost of applying retrospectively the improvements which were introduced into the Armed Forces pension scheme from 1st April 1973, from a current date, to those who are not eligible would be about £200 million per year. Furthermore, a change in principle of this type would have much wider implications both within the Armed Forces pension scheme and throughout the pension schemes of the public service generally. The cost of such a change across this much wider spectrum would be several times the figure for the Armed Forces pension scheme alone.