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 widow’s pensions
A letter from a widow
member featured in the last edition of NARPO News reminded all of us of
the plight of our widow members. The letter attracted calls from members
in a similar position to the letter writer, a position which reflects
more the standards and thinking of the early 20th century rather than
that of the early 21st century in its attitudes to women in particular.
Most of you will
know that under the Police Pension Regulations 1987, a widow’s pension is
not for life and will cease to be paid should the recipient remarry or
co-habit, whilst in receipt of the pension. Although this can be
re-instated if the new relationship comes to an end, it does mean for
many a choice between finding a future caring, loving relationship or
retaining some financial stability and independence. The problem of life
long survivor benefits has been resolved for those who recently joined
the police service as the new 2006 pension scheme does include such a
benefit. There is also a move by Government to resolve this problem for a
limited number of widows and widowers under the older scheme, which are
those whose spouses died in circumstances that would entitle the
surviving spouse to a Special or Augmented Pension. This does however
leave a number of widows and widowers in the position of losing their
pension should they form a lasting relationship which leads either to
marriage or co-habitation. A significant number of these will be older
widows whose pension is not a great sum in any event.
This is not a
problem which is unique to police widows and widowers but is similar
across all public sector schemes. We, and other public sector pensioner
organisation, continue to press for change but have been ignored by
successive governments. Whilst the latest change to these benefits is
still in the process of final considerations, interested parties could
write to their local parliamentarians to highlight this problem.
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injury
awards & dwp benefits
Last year the
Home Office encouraged all forces in England and Wales to write to all
those in receipt of injury awards to ascertain that the injury pension
being paid was at the correct level after taking into account the offset
of relevant DWP benefits being paid to individual members. This has
caused a great deal of anxiety for many members, who may have had their
injury pension incorrectly calculated by their force pension
administrator. The extent of the alleged miscalculation has only become
apparent following the circulation of these letters and members
responses. There is also some question over the correct interpretation of
the regulations as to what are the ‘relevant’ benefits that can be taken
into consideration when calculating the actual injury pension, which have
not proved easy to get agreement on. We have been in correspondence with
several forces and the Home Office in an effort to resolve some outstanding
issues in respect of this matter and hope to meet with the Home Office
soon for further discussions. In the meantime, here is a full run down of
the issues, including advice to members who find themselves caught in
this situation on our website at www.narpo.org – click on ‘Pensions’ then on ‘Injury
Pensions’.
*****
narpo logo
After receiving
several reports about the use of our name and logo in connection with
private or personal business interests, the National Executive Committee
took legal advice and considered the issue. NARPO, the name of the
Association, logo, coat of arms and badge are all registered trademarks
of the association to protect them from commercial exploitation. The
NARPO Rules also deal with the question of usage of these trademarks at
Rule 1.
The National
Executive Committee are clear that these trade marks were not intended to
be used to enhance the private or personal business interests of members
and will not authorise their usage in such circumstances. This does not
prevent the agreed usage of these marks by partners or service providers,
which provide a service more generally to the benefit of the membership
as a whole.
It has proved
difficult to police this situation and we do rely heavily on the
membership to control such usage. We are aware, for example, that certain
members and some non-members have been using the NARPO name and logo in
advertisements for investigative services. This is contrary to Rule 1(ii)
of NARPO’s rules and can give the suggestion that NARPO has approved or
has some connection with those services, in contravention of NARPO’s
rights in its name and trademarks. Please assist us to ensure that all
advertisements published by members or others do not use the NARPO name
and logo in the future without expressed permission.
*****
new
membership cards
The National
Executive Committee has agreed to produce new more robust and
professional membership cards. These will be in plastic similar to a
credit card and
include easy reference to membership number, a requirement for many
of the services offered by NARPO. Look out for the new cards towards the
end of the year.
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pension
increase
For those
eligible for a pension increase, the CPI figure for September 2011 is 5.2%.
This is the figure the Government is currently using to index police and
other public sector pensions in April 2012. The RPI figure for September
is 5.6%.
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hearing
trust
For those who
are having hearing difficulties, the Hearing Trust has to date offered
support. We have regularly featured the Hearing Trust in NARPO News and
have had several letters from satisfied customers about their services.
The Hearing Trust is moving to ‘charity status’
with a commercial arm, ‘Hearing Star’ providing their hearing services.
This is explained in more detail on page 28 of the November 2011 edition
of Narpo News including how to access their
website for further information and services in the future.
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