Forces Widows' Pensions (Equality of Treatment) Bill

Long title

A Bill to provide for the equal treatment of Forces widows' pensions in respect of retirement from military service for the periods before 1973 and between 1973 and 2005; and for connected purposes

Summary

<p>Until 1973, the widow of a retired serviceman was entitled to a pension equal to one third of the pension their spouse had earned.</p><p>In 1973, a number of improvements to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme were introduced, one of which was to increase the service widow&rsquo;s pensions to half the spouse&rsquo;s rate of pension. However, this improvement applied only to that part of the spouse&rsquo;s pension earned by service on or after 31 March 1973.<br><br><strong>Key areas<br></strong></p><ul><li>The Bill would provide for armed forces pensions to be paid to surviving spouses and civil partners of deceased armed forces personnel who retired from service:</li></ul><p> (a) before 31 March 1973 and<br> (b) between 31 March 1973 and 6 April 2005<br> to be calculated and paid on the same basis.</p>

Progress through Parliament

1. 1st reading· Commons

   5 December 2007 – 5 December 2007

2. 2nd reading· Commons

   1 February 2008 – 1 February 2008