§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many(a) Service personnel died between 1973 and October 2000, (b) Service wives were widowed between 1973 and October 2000 and (c) Service widows whose husbands died between 1973 and October 2000 had their Service widows' pensions stopped as a result of remarriage or cohabitation; [147739]
(2) what estimate his Department has made of (a) the total sum saved by the stopping of Service widows' pensions between 1973 and October 2000 on the remarriage or cohabitation of those widows and (b) the annual cost which would be incurred by restoring Service widows' pensions to those who were widowed between 1973 and October 2000 but have since remarried or cohabitated. [147740]
§ Dr. MoonieOur records show that 5,208 Regular Service Personnel died during the period 1 January 1982 to 31 December 2000, of whom 2,603 were married. This included attributable and non-attributable deaths. While information for the period prior to January 1982 exists, a manual search of records would be required and this would entail disproportionate cost. We are unable to provide the total numbers of Service widows who have had their pensions stopped as a result of remarriage or cohabitation for the entire period requested. However, in my reply to the hon. Member on 27 November 2000,Official Report, columns 422–43W, I provided figures for the number of widows remarrying in each of the last two years. Information for previous years could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
We do not have information on the actual sum saved by stopping Service widows' pensions between 1973 and October 2000 as a result of their remarriage or cohabitation. A broad actuarial estimate of the costs of reinstating attributable forces family pensions that ceased on remarriage or cohabitation between 1973 and 526W 31 October 2000 is between £22 million and £26 million (this estimate is based on reinstating the pensions for future but not providing backdating).