Forces Widows Pensions (Equality of Treatment) Bill

<p>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&rsquo;s pensions to half the spouse&rsquo;s rate of pension. However, this improvement applied only to that part of the spouse&rsquo;s pension earned by service on or after 31 March 1973.</p><p>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:<br> (a) before 31 March 1973 and<br> (b) between 31 March 1973 and 6 April 2005<br>to be calculated and paid on the same basis.</p>