Vol. 470 No. 3
146 Mrs. O'Rourke asked the Minister for Defence if a precedent has been set by any previous Minister for Defence in granting Army pension rights to an Army widow whose husband did not opt for the pension scheme for widows and family. [18989/96]
As I indicated in reply to Question No. 166 on the 10 October 1996, provision for the payment of pensions by the Department of Defence to the widows and children of deceased soldiers was first made in 1978 when a contributory pension scheme for those dependants was introduced with effect from 1 June 1977. Soldiers serving at the time were included as members of the scheme unless they made a positive option in writing not to become members.
Concurrently with the introduction of the contributory scheme, a special ex gratia scheme was introduced to provide for the dependants of soldiers who had either died in service or had retired on pension to the 1 June 1977 and were thereby outside the ambit of the contributory scheme.
The contributory scheme was extensively revised in 1985 and, in that context, both serving personnel and pensioners who had opted out of the original scheme on its introduction in 1978 were given a second opportunity to provide for their dependants by joining a revised contributory scheme.
At the same time, the widows of soldiers who had opted out of the original scheme and had died either in service or on pension in the intervening period were also given the option of joining the revised scheme and thereby qualifying for pension benefits.
Since the introduction of the revised scheme in 1985, pension benefits have been granted in a very small number of cases where an option to join the revised scheme was given to a soldier/pensioner but was not exercised by him and where there was medical evidence to indicate that the soldier/pensioner was incapable of managing his own affairs during the option period.
