{"id":573012,"date":"2026-08-03T08:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/573012\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T08:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:40:20","slug":"veterans-benefits-docked-in-stealth-raid-on-military-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/573012\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans\u2019 benefits docked in stealth raid on military pensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ministers have been accused of launching a \u201cstealth clawback\u201d of military pensions<\/a>, leaving veterans who claim benefits thousands of pounds worse off.<\/p>\n

Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions<\/a> (DWP) have informed veterans that their military pension is considered \u201cunearned income\u201d and will therefore result in a pound-for-pound reduction in benefits.<\/p>\n

In some cases this has resulted in veterans being ordered to repay tens of thousands of pounds<\/a>, as well as having their monthly benefit payments reduced.<\/p>\n

A group of former military servicemen plan to bring a legal challenge against Pat McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, in an effort to overturn the rules.<\/p>\n

Peter Sharples, the chief executive of the Veterans Institute, has experienced the issue himself. He said he had been in touch with \u201chundreds\u201d of others who had been affected in recent months.<\/p>\n

After applying in March 2024 for his military pension to be paid out three years early because of his \u201ccrippling\u201d health issues, he informed the DWP, who told him this was \u201cfine\u201d and that it would not affect his benefits.<\/p>\n

But in January 2025, he was told that he must repay \u00a38,800 and would have his benefits cut by \u00a3463 each month \u2013 the value of his military pension.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but his terminal gratuity payment \u2013 a tax-free lump sum that veterans receive at retirement \u2013 had been classed as \u201ccapital\u201d by the DWP, meaning that it would also lead to a reduction in his benefits.<\/p>\n

He appealed against the decision but a judge ruled earlier this year in the DWP\u2019s favour, saying it had acted in line with its own rules.<\/p>\n

\u2018It contravenes Armed Forces Covenant\u2019<\/p>\n

Now Mr Sharples and others intend to bring a judicial review in an attempt to get the system overhauled so that military pensions are treated as \u201cearned income\u201d, meaning that they will not affect benefits.<\/p>\n

Mr Sharples, 59, believes that the DWP is undertaking a \u201cstealth clawback of service reward\u201d by using military pensions and terminal gratuity payments as a way to reduce benefits.<\/p>\n

He believes this contravenes the Armed Forces Covenant, which promises that those who have served in the Armed Forces will be treated fairly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy case is similar to many thousands of veterans out there. Some have been chased for \u00a320,000 or \u00a330,000. It\u2019s clearly targeted,\u201d Mr Sharples told The Telegraph. \u201cClassing the military pensions as earned income would change the lives of thousands of veterans up and down the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent months, parliamentary questions have been asked by MPs about Armed Forces pensions being treated as unearned income for calculating Universal Credit.<\/p>\n

Mr Sharples believes that the DWP has recently launched a crackdown on benefits claimants in receipt of \u201cunearned income\u201d, and that military veterans appear to have been caught up in it.<\/p>\n

There are 68,000 people in Britain who claim Universal Credit and have previously served in the Army, according to official figures. Of these, a proportion will be at or nearing retirement age, which means that they are likely to be affected by the DWP\u2019s enforcement action.<\/p>\n

Tony Norris, 64, from East Yorkshire, who served in the Queen\u2019s Own Hussars cavalry regiment for 13 years, said that shortly after his wife died, he was contacted by the DWP about their decision to strip him, in effect, of his military pension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers have been accused of launching a \u201cstealth clawback\u201d of military pensions, leaving veterans who claim benefits thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[14736,259163,114,259164,3393,268,85,46,43,266,267,2865,17725,2082,17895],"class_list":["post-573012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-benefit","tag-british-army","tag-business","tag-department-for-work-amp-pensions","tag-disability","tag-finance","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-standard","tag-top-story","tag-uk-news","tag-universal-credit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}