e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@deadline.demon.co.uk
John Simpson is a quiet 81 year old who has been living peacefully in his sheltered home in Eston, Cleveland for many years. He gets a war pension of around £300 a month for the injuries he suffered in the Desert War in 1944. But recently he spent three weeks parading up and down in front of the town hall with placards and banners trying to shame local councillors into treating him - and hundreds of other war pensioners - fairly.
John is unfortunate. He lives in one of the few areas in the country where the local council gives war pensioners help with their rent or council tax with one hand, and then takes their war pension away with the other. In most places, partly due to a long and prize-winning campaign by Saga Magazine, most councils do the decent thing and let war pensioners keep the whole of their disability pension on top of any help with rent or council tax. But John Simpson's local council - Redcar and Cleveland - is one of a dwindling number which is mean enough to take money away from men and women who gave their health and well-being to defend their country. John reckons the council's meanness costs him nearly £300 a month, money he could do with now.
"I get it in one hand and they take it away with the other. I pay £120 a fortnight rent here and nearly £500 a year in council tax. I should get help with that but because of my war pension I get nothing, or very little anyway, I get about £8 off my rent and that’s it."
John's only income is from his retirement pension and his war disablement pension - round about £300 a month from each. If he just got his retirement pension then he would get all his rent and council tax paid through housing benefit and council tax benefit. But because the council counts his war pension as income, it reduces the amount of help it gives with rent and council tax. As a result, John struggles to live on little more than £60 a week. Effectively, the council takes back all the pension he has been awarded for injuries when the lorry he was driving was attacked by bombers in the desert in World War Two.
"I was in the Royal Army Supply Corps taking supplies in lorries to the troops. They had to be supplied with everything, petrol, food, ammunition, everything. And all the time they were bombing us from the air. There were at least a dozen times I could have been killed. One day I was under attack and a stick of five bombs came down and one dropped just outside my lorry. The whole lorry burned and I was badly injured, filled with shrapnel. I’ve still got shrapnel in my face, my temple, and my shoulder. This pension is compensation for that."
After the war John could no longer do the long distance lorry driving he did before and got by with less well paid jobs. He is counted as 40 per cent disabled and also gets an allowance for the fact that he could never earn as much again as he could before that day in the desert. But nearly all that money is taken by the council through reducing the help it should give him with his rent and council tax. Now John has decided that direct action is all that is left.
"I went to the Town Hall itself and I made some placards and banners and things and I went outside the town hall and paraded up and down I did it for three weeks. The local population sent me a lot of letters of support and sympathy and even councillors themselves said they were supporting me but when it comes to a show of hands in the chamber, they’ve got to follow the party line. All the councils that do this are Labour controlled and in the north of England. I’ve voted labour all me life but I don't think I will in the future. I’m sick of them. Now I returned the council tax form when they sent it to me and I wrote on it that I’m refusing to pay it."
And John vows he will not pay his council tax until the council changes its policy. Redcar and Cleveland is one of only eleven councils in England and Wales that treat war pensioners in this way. Another 29 take away some war disablement pension but not as much as the worst eleven. But the other 370 let pensioners keep all their war disablement pension or war widow’s pension in addition to any help with their rent or council tax.
When Saga Magazine started its campaign for fair treatment for war pensioners two and a half years ago, we divided councils into the good, the bad and the ugly. Then there were 30 ugly councils who took as much away from war pensioners as the law allowed; now there are 11. And the 80 on the 'bad' list - who took something but not everything - have fallen to just 29. We have not been alone in our campaign. Apart from brave individuals like John Simpson, the Royal British Legion has been campaigning locally and nationally for change. Its head of pensions is Tom House.
"Councils are changing, and that of course is pleasing. But the Royal British Legion won’t be satisfied until every council treats war disablement pensioners and widows fairly and lets them keep every penny of the money that is theirs by right for the injury and hurt they suffered defending the country."
The latest council to join the list of the good is Eastbourne in East Sussex. Before them, the City of Bristol, The Wrekin in Shropshire, Caradon in Cornwall and even Liverpool changed their policies. Liverpool is a particular prize. It actually went the wrong way during the Saga campaign, moving straight from the list of the good to the ugly, taking an estimated £1.3 million off 1500 war pensioners in 1996 and 1997. So it is excellent news that councillors there have seen the light.
And then just a few weeks ago there was more good news from East Anglia. Norwich City Council has long been on the list of the worst councils - like Redcar and Cleveland. But pressure from local war veterans made councillors choose a novel route to examine the issue. They convened a Citizens' Jury. The idea of the Jury is part of the council's Community Power initiative to involve more local people in making the decisions that affect their lives. Twelve local volunteers were found to form the jury and a professional person acted as the judge. The jury heard evidence for three days from councillors, officials, other local authorities and from the Legion's Tom House.
"It was a formal occasion. I presented my evidence for about 40 minutes explaining the details of war pensions and about the discrimination against those suffering enough to have a war disablement or widow's pension. I also read them some letters from individuals so they could see how much they were affected."
The jury spent three days hearing evidence and then, on Sunday 5 April gave their verdict - let war pensioners keep half their war pension and then another £10 before reducing the help with rent and council tax. Three days later a council committee met to approve the change. The cost to Norwich council tax payers is estimated at around £100,000 a year - though such estimates have been notoriously unreliable in the past. And the policy will be looked at again in a couple of years. It was better than nothing, as Tom House explained.
"It is a move in the right direction but as far as Royal British Legion looking after its ex-service community we would like to see it turned from 50% to 100%. We believe that it is up to central government to address the problem and introduce a national policy right across the board. But if that can’t be achieved, in the short-term we must approach local authorities."
But such pleas often fall on ears that can so easily be deaf to human responses and just look at the balance sheet. Back in Redcar and Cleveland no elected councillor was available to talk to Saga Magazine. But Assistant Finance Director Martin Vickers explained the policy.
"This year we have had to make £3 million of cuts and that has meant difficult decisions, library closures, severe reductions in the services we offer. We had to draw a balance between the interests of council tax payers and those who we provide services to. We introduced this policy in 1991 because of budget cuts and the council has reviewed it but to change it would cost the council £200,000 over the next financial year."
Without a change, John Simpson will not pay his council tax. Ultimately he could be jailed - though when such cases have come to court elsewhere, magistrates have been very reluctant to take that action against war pensioners. Tom House hopes it won’t come to that.
"The Royal British Legion does not preach anarchy. However it shows the strength of feeling within the ex-service community, and by Mr Simpson in particular, that this wrong has to be put right. And until it is, we will continue with our campaign."
June 1998
e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@deadline.demon.co.uk