A Bill to provide for the equal treatment of forces widows’ pensions in respect of retirement from military service for the periods before 1973 and between 1973 and 2005; and for connected purposes.
Until 1973, the widow of a retired serviceman was entitled to a pension equal to one third of the pension their spouse had earned. In 1973, a number of improvements to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme were introduced, one of which was to increase the service widow’s pensions to half the spouse’s rate of pension. However, this improvement applied only to that part of the spouse’s pension earned by service on or after 31 March 1973.The Bill would provide for armed forces pensions to be paid to surviving spouses and civil partners of deceased armed forces personnel who retired from service: (a) before 31 March 1973 and (b) between 31 March 1973 and 6 April 2005to be calculated and paid on the same basis.
House of Commons
29 October 2009
This bill aims to treat widows’ pensions for armed forces personnel who retired before 31 March 1973 the same as those who retired between 31 March 1973 and 6 April 2005. It would require surviving spouses and civil partners to have their pensions calculated and paid on the same basis across these periods.
The bill is at the second reading stage in the House of Commons and has not yet proceeded to committee stage.
Generated 21 February 2026
This Bill was presented to Parliament on 21 January. This is known as First Reading and there was no debate on the Bill at this stage.
This Bill was on the Order Paper for a Second Reading on several Fridays before being dropped by its sponsor, Mr Michael Mates.
No recorded votes for this bill yet.
