Support police widows

8 May 2019

Retired and serving West Midlands Police officers are being urged to write to their MPs in support of a change to regulations that could lead to pensions for life for all police widows.
 
A template letter and a link to MPs’ addresses can be found on the National Association of Retired Police Officers’ (NARPO) website.
 
The plea for support comes after a Parliamentary drop-in last week at Portcullis House in London organised by NARPO to raise awareness of the Widows’ Pension for Life Campaign which calls for parity for police widows and widowers within the UK should they choose to re-marry or co-habit following the death of their husband or wife.
 
The campaign has been driven by Kate Hall, whose husband Colin died of a heart attack while working as a West Midlands Police dog handler in 1987 and who lost her police pension when she moved in with a new partner years later.
 
Holly Lynch, MP for Halifax, who successfully championed the Police Federation’s Protect the Protectors campaign for tougher sentences for those who assault police officers, has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for widows and widowers in England, Scotland and Wales to retain their pension entitlement in full as is already the case in Northern Ireland.
 
As a result of repeated Government inaction on this issue, NARPO has reluctantly sought legal advice from a leading human rights barrister in an effort to get justice for those women, men and children who, it says, are victims of this archaic and unfair regulation, which severely restricts their life choices.
 
It has now received legal advice that indicates there is a sound case to pursue this matter under the Human Rights Act and, in particular, the right to fair proceedings under Article 6, the protection of property, under Article 1 Protocol 1 and the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life under Article 8.