The passing of an amendment to the Public Service Pensions Bill, proposed by Jim Allister, today in the Assembly has bestowed on all police widows the same rights upon remarriage.
Under the current rules – Police Pension (NI) Regulations 2009 – there is provision for life long benefits for a widowed spouse/partner of a police officer. Thus a police widow under the new rules can remarry and retain her pension.
However, under the old rules (1988) a police widow who remarries loses her pension. Thus, there is an inequality between how widows are treated, according to when they were widowed. It is this unfairness which the TUV amendment removes by repealing the part of the 1988 regulations which removed a widow’s pension upon remarriage. The amendment will also restore lost pensions from 1 July 2014 to widows who had remarried under the old rules.
It is mostly RUC widows who will benefit, many of whom lost their husbands through terrorist attacks. Now, they are on an equal footing with anyone widowed within the PSNI. Commenting Jim Allister said, “I see this not just as an issue of bringing equality to all police widows, but as also doing something else, after Ann’s Law, for innocent victims. In 2014 there could, in my view, be no justification for treating the RUC widow differently and less fairly within the police family. From lobbying which I had undertaken on this subject it was clear that only legislative change would work. The Public Service Pensions Bill presented the perfect opportunity and I’m glad I was able to bring this amendment onto the statute book. I know some of these affected widows have been campaigning for years with MPs and others for this change, so, I’m delighted with today’s victory.
“I also note from some DUP contributions that some of their MPs and MEP have been trying to resolve this issue, but without success. Interesting, then, that once again, as with the SPAD problem, it was TUV that found the solution!”