War pension- Lower standard of occupation.

Gazza66 wrote:

Traweled through the relevent section and couldnt find nothing that says you cant have ALSO and SAP at the same time..
Thanks.

Hi Gazza,

That is because the 'guidance' Dave's posts link to is not contemporary and doesn't reflect any legislative changes since 2008.

The information regarding the April 2009 and other changes is as laid down in the Service Pensions Order (SPO) and it's daughter legislation.

In effect those guides are not a 'living Document' and must be read in conjunction with the relevant Service Pensions Order and its annual 'updates' and changes.

If you give me until tomorrow I will dig out the relevant legislation in the SPO as I have it all in hard copy and I will point you to the correct updates.

Pete

Hi Pete,
Many thanks for your reply.
Were the rules changed again from 7/4/97 as stated in my letters from SPVA???
Why do the Govt and its agencies make it so hard and complicated for people..
Anyway Pete i will look forward to your pointers tomorrow for me to plough through.
Good night and god bless.
Thank you.

pete17971 wrote:

Gazza66 wrote:

Traweled through the relevent section and couldnt find nothing that says you cant have ALSO and SAP at the same time..
Thanks.

Hi Gazza,

That is because the 'guidance' Dave's posts link to is not contemporary and doesn't reflect any legislative changes since 2008.

The information regarding the April 2009 and other changes is as laid down in the Service Pensions Order (SPO) and it's daughter legislation.

Pete

They should ? be here some where my software not working

www.veterans-uk.info/vets_world/Veterans...d_issue14/news5.html

Gazza66 wrote:

Hi Pete,
Many thanks for your reply.
Were the rules changed again from 7/4/97 as stated in my letters from SPVA???
Why do the Govt and its agencies make it so hard and complicated for people..
Anyway Pete i will look forward to your pointers tomorrow for me to plough through.
Good night and god bless.
Thank you.

Hi Gazza,

There have been many changes made to the War Pension Scheme and Service Pensions Order(s) over the years and potentially further changes yet to come.

With regard to 07/04/97, as that is the first week in April when changes to the scheme traditionally take effect by update of the SPO, it could well be when the relevant changes were made.

Also one has to also look at the legislation relating to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 1975 and again it's legislative changes as one scheme can affect the other (as occurs with the SAP/ALSO overlap situation).

I agree it is not easy to keep upto date with things and unless one is fully 'au fait' then a little knowledge can be dangerous in certain situations.

As I stated earlier, I will have a look through the hard copies of the SPO and its revisions and daughter legislation tomorrow. Hopefully it won't take me too long to find the relevant articles, as I am going down to London tomorrow afternoon as I have been invited as an official guest at the Trooping the Colour parade on Saturday.

Regards

Pete

Hi Gazza,

After trawling through my mound of paper records this morning, I can, with some degree of certainty point you to the relevant piece(s) of legislation.

Basically, although as your letter says a 1979 change, this change was subsequently reflected in Article 55 of the Service Pensions Order 1983.

However, the abatement of the SAP with regards to ALSO was challenged again at a Pensions Appeal Tribunal as late as 2007. Subsequent to this challenge leave was given to take the case to the Upper Tier Tribunal as case ref R(AF) 4/09 before Judge Jacobs who gave his ruling on 16th March 2009.

(Having had the paper copy of the case and judgement with the case reference it was thus easy to find the case on the internet and more important (sadly) the judgement, which as it was given at an Upper Tribunal does in effect form case law).

The full ruling of Judge Jacobs is here:

www.dwp.gov.uk/commdecs/09_10/af_409.pdf

In effect, Judge Jacobs found for the Secretary of State for Defence in ruling that SAP does overlap with ALSO, thus a SAP can be abated by any award of ALSO.

Sorry it was not the answer you probably hoped for.

This is why we now do advise War Pensioners to think carefully if they do wish to put in a claim for ALSO, as since April 2009 there were further changes concerning overlap of ALSO with certain Income Replacement Benefits although these changes are not retrospective.

Regards

Pete

Hi Pete,
Many,many thanks for this.
Unfortunatley not the outcome i was looking for but now ive seen it for my own eyes.
Thanks again Pete.