Exclusive: War widow reveals how her pension was denied to her for 20 years
After experiencing the heartbreak of losing a loved one who served their country, war widows say they are still facing challenges when it comes to their pensions.
Jude Howcroft lost her first husband, who served in the military, when she was just 30.
She has since remarried and, under the rules for a war widow's pension, she lost access to her pension for more than two decades.
In an interview with Forces News, Mrs Howcroft said: "He was 33, I was 30, and I was six months pregnant with our second child.
"There was a knock on the door. You go and open the door, and you know. Didn't even have to say a word."
Mrs Howcroft says she was told fairly soon after her husband's death in 1998 that she would "lose everything" if she went on to remarry or cohabit.
"You lost literally everything financially, and that's massive," she said.
A person is entitled to a war widow's or widower's pension if their partner dies as a result of their service or during a time of war.
And, if they served before 6 April 2005, they could be eligible if they died of an illness or injury later.
However, Mrs Howcroft was told that when she married her second husband, she would lose access to her War Widow's Pension.
In 2015, legislation changed to allow war widows to remarry and keep their pension rights.
However, this did not extend to those whose spouse died between 31 March 1973 and 5 April 2005 who had already surrendered their pension on remarriage or cohabitation – like Mrs Howcroft.
To make up for this, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Treasury have announced that eligible widows will get a one-off lump sum of £87,500, but Mrs Howcroft does not see this as an acceptable solution.
She said: "Their next best thing is a lump sum payment, but basically, that lump sum will be taxed at 40% on the whole amount.
"I don't mean to sound ungrateful. In a cost-of-living crisis that is still a significant amount of money.
"However, I've not had my war widow's pension for the last 22 years, which is worth a considerable amount of money. Tax-free.
"We would rather have our pension reinstated because the most ironic thing of this all is I could go and get my pension reinstated if I divorced my husband.
"If I got divorced from my husband, whom I've been married to for 18 years now, if I divorced him I would get my war widow's pension, I could then remarry him and I could keep my war widow's pension.
"I could do that, and make my life a lot easier, but I don't want to get divorced," she added.
A campaign has been launched which aims to change the rules so that widows who remarried before 2015 when the rules changed, could get their pensions reinstated.
Dr Andrew Murrison, Minister for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families, said: "Our war widows have made a great sacrifice for our country and we will continue to support them in every way we can.
"This payment is a small but important step towards continuing to honour the commitment we have made to these brave people and we will continue to ensure they receive the recognition and support they deserve."
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