Family goes into battle with MoD after Afghan hero's pension cut

A WAR hero’s pension is being cut to save 20 a week – because he had only served as a sergeant for five months when he was shot dead in Afghanistan.

The family of Sgt Matty Telford, 37, have been told they will have to make do with a corporal’s pension because he had not held the higher rank for long enough when he was gunned down by a rogue Afghan policeman at a security checkpoint last year.

The Grenadier Guardsman, from Grimsby, was one of five off-duty soldiers murdered at the checkpoint at Nadi-e Ali last November.

The Army pension scheme denies a payout equivalent to rank when a serviceman dies within a year of promotion.

His mother Cheryl, 59, who is leading the campaign to have the ruling overturned, said: “I know that MoD are just sticking to the rules as they’re laid down, but the regulations can be applied too rigidly sometimes, and it’s unjust to treat people like this when they’ve been through so much.

“Matty lost his life serving as a sergeant, and his wife and children surely deserve to receive a sergeant’s pension, whether he’d been promoted for a few months or a few years.

“It says sergeant on his headstone at the cemetery, and we’ve got his three gold stripes hanging in a frame at home.”

She added: “He was so proud when he was promoted to the rank of sergeant in June 2009. I’ll always remember him coming home on leave and saying ‘I’ve got it mum, it’ll make a lot of difference to my pension’.”

An MoD spokesman said a Defence Minister would discuss the situation with Mrs Telford.

He added: “Our thoughts remain with family and friends of Acting Sergeant Telford.”