£15,000,000
The additional funding recommended by the Murrison Report. See p30
Before
after
after
Titchmarsh to the rescue
BLESMA Trustee goes from glitzy awards bash to TV star in months
J
une 2013 was a busy month for
Member and Former BLESMA
Trustee John Phillips DSC.
Firstly, he was presented with
a Soldiering on Through Life Award by
General Sir Nicholas Houghton, now Chief
of the Defence Staff at a ceremony in London.
Then he had his garden revamped on TV
by green-fingered celeb Alan Titchmarsh.
John, who lost his left arm serving in the
Falklands War as a Bomb Disposal Officer
in the Royal Engineers, was nominated
for an award by the South Atlantic Medal
Association 1982 (SAMA) – the association
for Falklands Veterans and their families.
The annual Awards honour Service
personnel who have struggled with injury
or illness. John received his award for his
work in developing SAMA and producing
the Association’s newsletter. Meanwhile,
his colleagues at SSAFA, where he has
been a caseworker for more than 12 years,
applied for him to have his garden made
over by Alan Titchmarsh and his team for
the ITV programme Love your Garden.
John, and his wife Christine, have
recently moved to their retirement home
and were worried about turning what
was a bare plot of land into a garden. John
was one of just seven people from 2,000
nominations to appear on the programme.
The team took six days to transform the
patch of ground into a colourful garden.
They used Royal Engineer recruits from
Farnborough to help build an arbor and
put in place a 250kg piece of rock brought
over from the Falklands. The programme
aired on ITV in July.
Not just a load
of old rubbish
Have you got old mobile phones, printer
cartridges, foreign currency or even broken
jewellery that you don’t know what to
do with? Don’t throw them away – they
could be worth £1,000s to BLESMA.
BLESMA can raise vital funds through
your recycling – it’s easy (and free) to do, and is
great for the environment. From broken watches and odd
earrings to unwanted cutlery, your donations could make all
the difference. And if you’ve been abroad recently don’t let
your leftover change sit in a drawer for years. BLESMA can
make use of notes and coins of any currency.
For information and for FREEPOST envelopes or collection
boxes, contact [email protected] or call 020 8590 1124.
News
Changes to
benefits and
pensions that
may affect you
Were you in receipt of Unemployability
Supplement and reached State Pension
age between 8 April 2002 and 10 April
2006? If so, there were some rule
changes which may affect the rate
of Basic State Pension you receive.
On 10 April 2006, War Pension rules
were changed with regard to the
relationship between Unemployability
Supplement (UnSupp) and Basic State
Pension. Prior to this date, those
approaching their 60th or 65th birthday
who were in receipt of UnSupp would
have been asked whether they wished
to continue to receive their UnSupp or,
instead, receive the Basic State Pension.
Basic State Pension has been, since
8 April 2002, worth slightly more than
UnSupp but, until the 2006 rule change,
those wishing to claim their pension
would have had their UnSupp payments
(and any
allowances paid
in addition to
this) ceased.
The 2006 rule
change allowed
those opting
to claim Basic
State Pension to continue to receive their
UnSupp but also receive the difference
in value between the Basic State Pension
and UnSupp as a ‘top-up’.
It has come to our attention that,
despite the Department of Work and
Pensions promoting the change at the
time, not everyone who had opted
to continue to receive UnSupp prior to
2006 (but after 8 April 2002) were
aware that they could receive both
UnSupp and benefit from the Basic State
Pension ‘top up’ from 10 April 2006.
There is now an article on the Service
and Personnel and Veterans Agency
website (www.veterans-uk.info) that
addresses the issue. The piece doesn’t
offer any instructions on how to claim
the top-up, however BLESMA will write
to The Pensions Service on behalf of its
Members and check its records to make
sure no Member has been missed.
Look out for a further update in the
next issue of BLESMA magazine.
www.blesma.org 11