A Moray war widow’s campaign to overturn an “unfair” military pension system has been boosted after she joined dozens of other bereaved spouses in a protest outside the Houses of Parliament.
Maureen Jarvis is calling for the UK government to revise a ruling that disqualifies women whose partners died between 1973 and 2005 – and who remarried before April last year – from receiving pensions.
The 60-year-old’s navigator husband, Alan Campbell, died when the RAF Lossiemouth jet he was aboard crashed in the Western Isles in 1990.
She remarried in 2014, just six months before the pension ruling came into effect and prevented her from collecting Mr Campbell’s pension.
Mrs Jarvis was accompanied by two other Moray widows, Judith Sutherland and Angie Mackenzie, at the Cromwell Green entrance to the building.
The trio joined bereaved women from across the UK, who held aloft pictures of their servicemen husbands and waved a banner demanding “justice for all war widows”.
Yesterday, Mrs Jarvis said the “emotional” protest had given her new hope that the system could be changed.
She added: “We shared our experiences with about 20 cross-party MPs, who certainly seemed to take our issues on board.
“Some progress has definitely been made. It was very emotional, as we all have some sad stories, but it feels like we achieved something.”
Moray MP Angus Robertson is backing Mrs Jarvis’s efforts, and joined her and the other local women during the demonstration.
Mr Robertson said: “Our armed forces make huge sacrifices to protect our country.
“It is incumbent upon the UK government to support the loved ones of service personnel who have died while serving.
“It is completely unacceptable to unfairly deny hundreds of war widows a pension that is rightfully theirs, because they have remarried.”
Mr Robertson added that the policy of denying war widows a pension because of the date of their remarriage was “completely incoherent”, and pledged to do “everything he could” to ensure defence chiefs revised it.
But the Ministry of Defence has moved to defend the scheme, saying that Veterans Welfare Service advisers would help widows left in need of financial assistance.
The body also stated it stood by a “longstanding principle” not to alter legislation after it has passed, as doing so would impact on public finances.