SCOTTISH VETERANS SHOULD NOT FACE PENSIONS CUT.

SCOTTISH VETERANS SHOULD NOT FACE PENSIONS CUT.

TREASURY SHOULD ADOPT SCOTTISH SOLUTION.

SNP MSP and former Marine Keith Brown today called on the Treasury to abandon plans to cut pensions payments to retired members of the armed forces.

The plans follow the revelation that some veterans, along with other public sector employees, have received overpayments in their pension.

Mr Brown, who is an active campaigner for veterans, spoke out after it was revealed that the UK Government is to cut the pensions of veterans caught up in this fiasco.

Mr Brown said;
“That this overpayment fiasco has happened in the first place is bad enough.
“That Scotland’s veterans may now see the pensions they had planned on cut back at a time when household budgets are tighter than ever is a disgrace.

“The Scottish Government has come up with an honourable and sensible way forward – freezing the overpayment where they can – to prevent pensions being cut, but calculating further increases on the correct pension payment. That is a fair way of responding to this situation.

"Unfortunately armed forces pensions are controlled by the Treasury.
“Instead of taking the sensible solution the Treasury are cutting the pensions of our former armed forces personnel.
“It is no fault of those veterans that they have been overpaid and the Treasury must understand that people have planned on these pensions in good faith.

“The money to make these payments is already in the budget for the schemes – cutting them is simply more penny pinching from the Treasury."