Councillor Alex Crawford has submitted the Motion (below) on Fair and Equal Pensions for Gurkha veterans for the next Meeting of Rushmoor Borough Council on 22 April.

Please would you ask all your Friends and Contacts to sign the Petition in solidarity as we are all working towards the same goals of fairness and equality for Gurkha veterans and their families?

Please would you give them this link? http://chng.it/xYJgTVLrCp

If you can, please would you also donate to change.org as they will invite more people to sign?

Thank you for your support!

Best wishes for the success of the Petition.

Councillor Alex Crawford JP, Aldershot 

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Gurkha Pensions

In 2017, the long-standing plea for Equal Pensions allowed those Gurkha veterans who enlisted from 1993 and those discharged from 1997 to transfer their Gurkha Pensions to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme.  

However, in doing so, they were denied the full benefits.  As a result, they have been penalised, with those qualifying for immediate pension losing on average 16 years of pensionable service, so many are worse off than they were in the Gurkha Pension Scheme.

Such Gurkha veterans and their families living in Rushmoor, as elsewhere, denied their full right are experiencing hardship as a result.

Additionally, Gurkha veterans discharged prior to 1 July 1997 do not receive pensions equal to other British Army veterans.

This Council therefore supports the request of the British Gurkha Welfare Society (BGWS), based in Farnborough, for a House of Commons Select Committee to establish an Inquiry on these issues as a matter of urgency.

BGWS members residing nationwide will also be approaching their respective Councils with the same request.