Councillor Alex Crawford of Aldershot has drafted an email to Captain Leo Docherty MP, Parliamentary Secretary of State (Minister for Defence People and Veterans), which Gurkha veterans can use as a basis for submitting their claims for fair and equal pensions (see below).

Cllr Crawford invites any Gurkha veterans in Aldershot who need assistance in writing an email about their claims to contact him directly at alex.crawford06@btinternet.com

------------------ 

Captain Leo Docherty MP

Parliamentary Secretary of State (Minister for Defence People and Veterans)

E-mail: MinDPV-PrivateOffice@mod.gov.uk

Dear Minister,

First, may I congratulate you on your appointment by the Prime Minister to this important Government post?

Your post is especially important at this time to Gurkha veterans, as I am, who would like you to give urgent consideration to Gurkha Pensions issues.

As a Gurkha veteran with service in the British Army, I know how bad our pensions are compared to those of other soldiers with the same service and the same rank, but who are not Gurkha veterans.

When I left the Army, it seemed wrong that, for my years of service, I would have a pension equivalent to about one-third of that for any other soldier of my rank.

Then, 14 years ago, the Ministry of Defence devised the Gurkha Offer to Transfer (GOTT), which gave Gurkha Pension Scheme (GPS) members (retired or serving) with service on or after 1 July 1997 an option to move from the GPS to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) –  on the basis that Gurkha veterans would then have the same annual increases as other soldiers – which seemed fair at the time.

However, we now know that, if we had remained in the GPS, our pensions would have been much higher than they now are in the AFPS.

I know because I am one of the GOTT victims – whereby my monthly pension has reduced greatly since last year.

Thousands of Gurkha veterans in this situation feel that, despite their long years of loyal service in the British Army, the British Government has cheated them.

You will be aware of these Gurkha Pensions issues, as British Gurkha Welfare Society Chairman Major (Retd) Tikendra Dewan raised them with you earlier this year in your role as MP for Aldershot Constituency.

Please would you raise these Gurkha Pensions issues as a matter of urgency with your departmental colleagues as the longer they go on unresolved the greater the losses to Gurkha veterans and the greater the sense of betrayal that we feel?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

A Gurkha Veteran