Manchester's police chief adds to calls for change to widows' pensions

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/11/manchester-police-chief-change-widows-pensions

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One of Britain's most senior police officers has called for urgent reform of pension rules to allow bereaved widows to keep their police spouse's pension if they remarry or cohabit.

Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester police, described as outdated the rules that mean many grieving spouses are forced to live alone or face losing their late partner's pension.

Backing calls for the home secretary, Theresa May, to change the pension rules, Fahy told the Guardian: "The existing rules have not kept up with the realities of modern life and partners should not be penalised in this way.

"Society should show its respect for a police officer killed while doing their duty by ensuring that their loved ones are supported whatever the change in their personal circumstances."

Fahy, a vice-president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, is the most senior police officer to call for reform of the pension regulations that affect around 22,000 serving officers. A petition by police widows on the site Change.org has amassed around 5,700 signatures.

The GMP chief became a trustee of Care of Police Survivors, a charity for bereaved families of police officers, following the brutal murder of PCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes while responding to an emergency call in Manchester on 18 September 2012. The pair were shot dead by convicted killer Dale Cregan, who was jailed for life last June.

Fahy's call was backed by Simon Edens, deputy chief constable of Leicestershire police. One of the widows leading the campaign, Allison Charlton, said the pension rules, first introduced in 1987, forced bereaved partners to be alone for the rest of their life. Charlton's late husband, Andy Munn, was killed alongside a fellow Leicestershire police colleague, Bryan Moore, by a drunk driver in 2002.

Edens said: "Police officers often put themselves in harm's way to protect the public, just as Andy Munn and his colleague Bryan Moore did when they lost their lives.

"Officers are fully aware that they do a dangerous job, but they do it knowing that if the worst should happen to them, their loved ones will be provided for. This is the least they should expect for such a sacrifice."

Rules introduced in 2006 meant that serving officers and new recruits could sign up to "pensions for life" for their loved ones, but this does not apply to widows and widowers whose partners died under the previous pension scheme introduced in 1987.

The Home Office said it was committed to ensuring public service pensions were "affordable, sustainable and fair, both for the members of those schemes and other taxpayers". A Home Office spokeswoman said any attempt to reinstate widows for pensions that were cancelled when they remarried or moved in with a partner would "have serious implications across the whole public sector".

However, many campaigners insist they are not asking for pension payments cancelled years ago to be reimbursed – but hope ministers will reinstate payments from now.

Kate Hall, whose husband Colin suffered a fatal heart attack while serving with West Midlands police in 1987, sacrificed his pension of £300 a month in 2001 when she moved in with her partner after years of living alone.

She said: "Successive governments have repeated the same excuses in order to distance themselves from, and justify their refusal to give us parity with other widows; surely such behaviour does not auger well for the re-election prospects of the present Conservative government?"

Last month, Northern Ireland reinstated pensions for widows and widowers whose spouses died in service from 1 January 1989, a move campaigners hope is a positive step towards reform elsewhere.

A Home Office spokesman said the government was committed to ensuring public service pensions were "affordable, sustainable and fair, both for the members of those schemes and other taxpayers". He added: "Officers who join the 2006 police pension scheme do benefit from life-long pensions for widows and widowers. All serving officers were offered the opportunity to transfer to this scheme when it was introduced.

"In common with most other public service pension schemes of the time, the 1987 pension was not designed or funded to provide such benefits. Attempting to backdate this or any pension of this type, would have serious implications across the whole public sector."