War widows won't escape pension cuts - Downing St

Downing Street has rejected calls to protect war widows and injured soldiers from the coalition's pension cuts, insisting "tough decisions" were necessary to rebuild the public finances.

The Forces Pension Society has appealed to David Cameron to intervene to prevent widows and the injured losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The society chairman, Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Moore, said that his declarations of support for the armed forces would have a "hollow ring" unless he acted.

However, Downing Street yesterday insisted the military could not be exempt from changes affecting the entire public sector.

"A policy decision has been made," a No 10 spokeswoman said. "The Prime Minister has the highest regard for the armed forces and their families but tough decisions had to be made in this particular respect."

The row follows the announcement in Chancellor George Osborne's first Budget that all public-sector pensions increases would be linked to the consumer price index (CPI) rather than the historically more generous retail price index (RPI).

Widows who remarry or move in with a partner will lose their military pensions altogether.

The Forces Pensions Society calculates that the change, which affects forces pensions and annual Guaranteed Income Payments, mean a 34-year-old wife of a staff sergeant killed in Afghanistan, for example, would be almost 750,000 worse off over the course of her lifetime.

A corporal who lost both legs in a bomb blast would miss out on about 500,000.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The change to indexation announced in the emergency budget affects all public-service pensions.

"It is not possible to treat the armed forces differently from other public servants. Attempting to retrospectively change previous pension schemes could not be done - it would be too expensive, especially given the current financial situation."