Feeble attempt at rectifying an injustice

The Labour Party’s director of communications, Kurt Farrugia (December 17) criticised The Times for not pointing out what he termed as “major amendments introduced by the Labour government in 1997 which rectified the situation for thousands of British Services pensioners”.

What he omitted to say is that the grossly unfair decision to reduce Malta state pensions by such service pensions was taken by the 1979 Labour government! Moreover, it should be borne in mind that this decision hit adversely not only British Services pensioners but also many others entitled to a private pension from their former employers for service either locally or while working overseas.

The Times report (December 20) stated that the European Commission has responded positively to claims that deduction of contributory service pensions of former British servicemen are illegal. This is welcome news to all such long-suffering pensioners. The report stated that about 6,000 former British servicemen who have over the years suffered a deduction of their UK pension from their normal national insurance pension would have to be paid millions of euros by the government if the Commission’s arguments are upheld.

To these should be added the (unknown) number of pensioners receiving a private pension from foreign sources and who have had their Malta state pension reduced and, hence, are still being deprived of part of their local state pension in the same way as British Services pensioners despite having paid the statutory minimum NI contributions.

It is a shame that only a feeble attempt at rectifying this injustice, initiated over 30 years ago, has so far been made by successive governments.

Following a claim by a Maltese citizen, it had to be the European Commission to bring matters to a head and the ball is now in the government’s court. The government has stated it will respond to the Commission’s request “within the stipulated timeframes”. Pensioners hit by the 1979 decision live in the hope that full – not partial – justice will be done during their lifetime!