Armed forces: Ministers reject call to protect war widow pensions

The Forces Pension Society has appealed to Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene personally to prevent widows and the injured losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The society chairman, Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Moore, said Mr Cameron's declarations of support for the armed forces would have a "hollow ring" unless he acted.

However Downing Street insisted that the military could not be exempt from changes affecting the entire public sector.

"A policy decision has been made," a No 10 spokeswoman said. "The Prime Minister has the highest regard for the armed forces and their families but tough decisions had to be made in this particular respect."

The row follows the announcement in Chancellor George Osborne's first Budget that all public sector pensions increases would be linked to the consumer price index (CPI) rather than the historically more generous retail price index (RPI).

Widows who remarry or move in with a partner will lose their military pensions altogether.

The Forces Pensions Society calculates that the change, which affects forces pensions and annual Guaranteed Income Payments, mean a 34-year-old wife of a staff sergeant killed in Afghanistan, for example, would be almost 750,000 worse off over the course of her lifetime.

In a letter to The Times, Sir Michael wrote: "It is so easy for Mr Cameron to extol the forces at every opportunity and he will probably do so on Remembrance Sunday, but his words have a hollow ring unless he addresses these issues personally."