// War widows will lose hundreds of thousands of pounds because of cuts to their pensions and benefits, campaigners claim.
The changes, introduced by the Coalition, will affect families of the dead as well as permanently disabled soldiers, according to the Forces Pension Society.
The criticism, before Remembrance Sunday, comes in a letter by the organisation’s chairman, Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Moore.
He 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.’
The problems originate from measures announced in the summer which state all public sector pensions would be linked to the consumer price index (CPI).
Experts predict this will leave service families less well-off than if their pensions were linked to the historically more generous retail price index (RPI).
It means the annual Guaranteed Income Payment, which is paid to badly injured servicemen and women, will also be pegged to the CPI.
According to The Forces Pension Society, a not-for-profit company, the changes will mean that a 34-year-old widow of a staff sergeant killed in Afghanistan would lose almost £750,000 over the course of her lifetime. //
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Should injured soldiers be exempt from the Government's axe?