Lament of the war widows: why should we have to divorce new partners to keep our pensions?

WAR widows who remarried have attacked a “disrespectful, last-minute” change to a Government compensation scheme that means they would be tens of thousands of pounds better off if they divorced their current partners.

- Rachael Burford

Dozens of women who were stripped of their war widows pension after finding love again have learned that they are not eligible for an £87,500 lump sum bereavement payout. But if they divorced their current partner the pension would be reinstated and they would receive tax-free payments of about £8,000 a year for life even if they remarried again.

Pension rules for the spouses of personnel killed in service were overhauled in 2015. It meant the bereaved no longer had to give up the Government income they would otherwise be entitled to if they began a new relationship. But the measures were not backdated and those who had forfeited their war widows pension to get remarried between 1973 and 2015 were not reimbursed.