Hi folks,
More news of the work that NARPO (National Association of Retired Police Officers) is doing on our behalf; this is their latest magazine article.
Please pay particular attention to paragraphs 11 and 13:
"This year NARPO have been progressing our ‘Pensions for Life’ campaign with a programme of targeted lobbying in Parliament.
Our campaign is dedicated to securing pensions for life for widows, widowers and civil partners of Police Officers in England and Wales, regardless of their future relationship status. It began a number of years ago following a change to the Police Pension Regulations in 2015, which resulted in a glaring inequality in the treatment of police widows and widowers throughout the United Kingdom.
In short, the new regulations mean that depending on where their deceased spouse served as a police officer, the nature of their death and the date of the survivor’s remarriage, cohabitation or civil partnership, some widows and widowers are entitled to payment of the police pension and others are not.
In Northern Ireland, all police widows and widowers retain their pension entitlement upon remarriage, cohabitation or civil partnership irrespective of the circumstances of the death of their spouse. This is unlike every other region of the UK, where the pension is only retained if the death of the spouse occurred on duty or due to an injury on duty.
To further complicate matters, in England and Wales the pension is only retained if the remarriage or cohabitation occurred after 1st April 2015, whereas in Scotland there is no such restriction.
NARPO recognise the immeasurable contribution that spouses and partners of police officers make towards public service. That’s why we believe all police widows and widowers have the right to be treated the same, regardless of their circumstances. The existing approach is unfair and puts many in an extremely difficult position, forced to make a choice between financial security or isolation. This is why we are calling on the Government to rectify this situation.
We have been consistently pressing the Government to amend these regulations, but a positive response has not been forthcoming. We have therefore been working to gain further support from MPs and Lords for our campaign in order to influence Government. On 1st May, NARPO held a parliamentary drop-in hosted by our long-term supporter and MP for Halifax Holly Lynch. During a two-hour period, representatives from NARPO’s National Executive Committee, along with affected widows and widowers, met with nearly 60 MPs to talk to them about the negative affect this policy has had on our members.
We received a fantastic level of support from across the political spectrum, with many MPs saying they had been unaware of the inequality that existed. You can find a full list of those MPs who attended on the NARPO website.
We asked those who attended if they would take forward one of our parliamentary actions to further highlight this campaign. Our top ask was for MPs to sign our Early Day Motion (EDM) which recognises the contribution made by the spouses of Police Officers and calls for survivor pension equality. EDMs are used by MPs to draw attention to specific campaigns and by attracting signatures, we can demonstrate to Government the level of parliamentary support we have for this topic. To date we have received 53 signatures from cross-party MPs which demonstrates the breadth of this campaign. If you’d like to write to your MP asking them to support the EDM, you can find a draft letter via the link featured at the end of this article.
It is fantastic to know there are many MPs in Parliament who are sympathetic and agree with our concerns. However, whilst this outpouring of support from Parliamentarians is incredibly encouraging, the job is not over. Despite repeated and continuing engagement with Government, we have received no justification for this policy and have had no offers to work with Government to resolve the issues caused by this archaic regulation.
As a result of repeated Government inaction on this issue, the NEC recently agreed to take expert legal advice to ascertain if there was any legal route we could pursue to seek justice for those widows and widowers who had had their pension removed because of remarriage or cohabitation, or who had been forced to live without a spouse or partner and therefore forced to live a family life without a father or mother figure, which for those with young children can be very difficult and trying. We approached Lexent Partners and consulted a leading Human Rights Barrister at Matrix Chambers in London and we have now received positive legal advice that indicates we have a sound case to pursue this matter under the Human Rights Act and in particular the right to fair proceedings under Article 6, the protection of property under Article 1 Protocol 1 and the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life under Article 8.
The Government continue to hide behind the cost as a reason for not doing this but it is interesting to note that a recent report issued by the Government Actuary’s Department, it is stated that between 2012-2016, 5631 police pensioners died leaving no dependents. This means that despite paying for survivor benefits, funds paid into these pensions ere not claimed. By comparison, in the same period, just 77 survivor pensions ceased due to remarriage.
As a result of the last appeal in May NEWS, quite a good number of widows and widowers have contacted us to give us their stories of how they and their families have been affected, but we are still looking for more. If you have been affected by this archaic Regulation please send us your completed Questionnaire by either visiting our website at: www.narpo.org/?s=widows+pension+for+life or contacting your Branch Secretary who will be able to provide you with a copy. We need as many members as possible to come forward and provide us with their details, to strengthen the nature of the claim.
We have made excellent progress in this campaign in recent months and with a new Government almost in-situ, we will be continuing to fight for our members and to ensure that their pensions are for life.
Our members are a valuable resource when mobilised and we will continue to keep you updated and ask for your help to campaign on this matter further.
To keep up to date with the Pensions for Life campaign, please visit: www.narpo.org/widows-pension-life/ "
If you wish to share your story with NARPO and you are not a NARPO member, please go ahead and complete the questionnaire on their website.
Huge thanks to you guys for keeping this campaign alive and on the political agenda regardless of BREXIT - shucks almost made it through an update without mentioning the B word!
My email as usual is CathrynHall11@gmail.com if you wish to contact me.
Best wishes as always,
Cathryn