ANNEX A
SERVICE WIDOWS' DEATH GRANTS AND PENSIONS
1.
The
The Armed Forces Pensions Scheme is long established. pensions it pays are index linked and the rates are revised annually to reflect the increases in Service pay recommended by the Review Body on Armed Forces Pay and accepted by the Government.
Standard arrangements
2.
The scheme provides lump sum terminal grants and pensions, related to rank and length of service, to servicemen who retire or are invalided from the Service; and widows' and children's pensions to their dependants. If the husband dies while still in the Service, the widow receives a death grant in place of the terminal grant that he would have received.
When injury or death is attributable to service
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3. If a serviceman's disability or death is directly attributable to his service - whether in war, limited operations or normal peacetime conditions the grants and pensions are, under provisions introduced in 1973, paid at an enhanced rate related to rank but irrespective of length of service, and without any requirement for a minimum qualifying period of service. A DHSS war pension is also paid (unless, in the case of disability, the degree of disability is less than 20%, in which case a gratuity is paid instead).
4. The widow's pension is approximately 90% of the pension that her husband would have received had he served to the end of a full career (compared with the widow's pension of half the husband's entitlement at the date of death that is normally paid). Both the Service widow's pension and the DHSS war widow's pension are index linked from the date of award, and the DHSS pension is tax free.
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