I Publish Report into Gurkha Pensions and Other Grievances The All Party group on Gurkha welfare has published its report on Gurkha Pensions and other grievances. Speaking at the launch in Parliament, I said as Chairman said, “We in Britain have a great deal of affection and respect for our Gurkha friends and it is important that we as Members of Parliament ensure that the British Government is doing right by our Gurkha friends. Our priority in this report has been to tackle the issue of the 7,000 Gurkha veterans with no pension because they failed to serve the 15 years which would qualify them for a Gurkha pension. We believe some were unfairly dismissed, some were made redundant, some were medically discharged. We would like them to have a formal entitlement to a pension. This should be funded by the LIBOR fines. We also believe that the fines should fund a generous endowment to the Gurkha welfare trust, to fund healthcare for Gurkha veterans living in Nepal. We have also made a specific number of recommendations where we think there is clear evidence that the Gurkhas have been treated poorly and that we want the Government to make good. Gurkha soldiers were banned from marrying non Nepalese women. We believe that this was racist and illegal and that those soldiers who were forced to leave the army were unfairly dismissed and deserve redress. Gurkhas were left outside the National Insurance scheme until it was found that this was in breach of the Human Rights Act in 2005. We were advised that Gurkhas were issued with a dummy National Insurance number. We believe that Gurkhas should be given National Insurance credits for their service. We also believe that deductions equivalent to tax deducted from Gurkhas serving in Brunei were questionable and should be refunded. We must endeavour to do right by the Gurkhas and we hope this report will address some of the grievances and we will continue our discussions with the Gurkhas to ensure that they are treated fairly.”
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:42:27 +0000
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