e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk
One by one local councils in the north of England are ending their discrimination against war pensioners. Sheffield is the latest council to give in to the long campaign by disabled veterans which Saga Magazine has supported in a prize-winning series of articles. After much anguish, local councillors there have voted to end the discrimination completely from April 1999. It will cost an estimated £400,000 a year - money that will go straight back to 435 local war pensioners and their widows in reduced rent and council tax.
And that is good news for 83-year-old Bill Hudson and his wife Mary. They will gain at least £10 a week. Money they surely deserve after Bill's experiences in the war.
"Well, I was unlucky and lucky. Lucky I’m still alive but unlucky that I was wounded three times. I was at the invasion of Sicily as an NCO. They patched me up and I got back out again just in time for the Gagliano river. I was shot in the head but it just missed my eye. Hospital again and then out just in time, this time for the Anzio beachhead. I went on a bit of a mission to find out what the Germans were doing and we got shelled by a three inch mortar bomb and that was when I had one of my kidneys taken away. I was sent home then, that was in 1944."
When he returned, as a young man still barely 28, Mary and he married. But the multiple injuries had left him with epileptic fits and, more recently, diabetes. And that meant he could no longer keep the job he had done before he was called up.
"I had a real good job at the steelworks. But I had to leave it and get another. The money was around half what I had got but that’s what I had to do. I think it's terrible that the council has been robbing us all these years. You get a pension for a disability and then the council makes you pay your full rent and council tax and takes it away from you!"
Like many war pensioners Bill and Mary have been fighting for this change for years. And Mary has recently started using technology to help her campaign. Through the Internet she has reached more than 100,000 people with her message - Sheffield City Council has been robbing us. Now her site is decorated with poppies and the word "Victory!" in honour of the change of heart by Sheffield councillors.
"We're part of Sheffield War Pensioners Action Group. Chris, my son-in-law, gave me a website for my birthday and I dedicated it to all the war heroes."
Anyone with access to the Internet can see the information there, read about the campaign and contribute their thoughts to it. Already they have had 109,000 people visiting the site, including war pensioners from other parts of the world who support their campaign and want to know more. One section pays tribute to the pensioners who have died before the change of heart - war hero victims of a second war as Mary Hudson puts it.
Bankrupt policy
Sheffield councillors admit they changed the policy because of the long campaign waged by war pensioners. And tough campaigns have had a similar effect in nearby Barnsley and Wakefield where both councils are in the middle of phasing out discrimination against war pensioners. The process will be complete by April 2001. But that has not stopped Wakefield councillors using the full power of the law to pursue those who are still protesting by refusing to pay their council tax. In neighbouring Barnsley the council tried unsuccessfully to have one campaigner and his wife jailed (see Saga Magazine April 1996). But the public relations disaster of seeing the council going to court to have an elderly and disabled war veteran and his wife sent to prison finally led to the council changing its policy.
The City of Wakefield seems to have learnt nothing from its colleagues in Barnsley. It has decided to make campaigners bankrupt. In their sights is Mike Griffin, a relative youngster in the campaign at 52, who has refused to pay any council tax for five years. When he started the campaign his council tax would have been reduced to zero if the council had ignored his war disablement pension, so he did not see why he should pay the tax. Mike is a formidable opponent, a tough and resourceful ex-soldier who was injured training in Germany at the height of the Cold War in 1967. He smashed his leg while travelling at high speed through what he describes as "closely planted trees". He thought his injury had been fixed up and went on to complete his nine years service. But after he returned to civilian life his leg suddenly collapsed while he was working as a scaffolder.
"I was on my way to lunch and had just climbed down 200 stairs, then it caved in and I fell down the rest. I got a 20 per cent pension no question, then it started to throw out my other joints and as it worsens I’ve already got another 20pc and I am applying for another increase now."
The bankruptcy proceedings started in July 1997 and Mike has fought the application every step of the way. He has appealed against every decision, and challenged every court action. One judge even said to him "I can well understand that you must feel you have been badly let down by the justice system". Bankruptcy proceedings normally take 12 weeks; Mike has stretched them out to more than eighteen months. But after seeing off bailiffs and appearing before three judges Mike finally decided to pay some of the money - though he still refused to pay all that he owes. But this is just another step in his long campaign to spin things out.
"I’m not giving in by any means. What's happened is they’ve got my arm up my back, going to make me bankrupt. I have been refusing to pay, I am not unable to pay so they shouldn't be trying to make me bankrupt in the first place. Now I have the opportunity to get out of the bankruptcy petition. I will pay some of what I owe but keep back £749. You have to owe at least £750 to be made bankrupt so I don't see how they can get that off me now. But when I owe them more, and I think the tax will be over £600 in 1999, they'll have to go through the whole proceedings again. As for the rest, £1260, I’m paying it all in coins. It'll be several bags, I think I'll get a little wheelbarrow. And of course they'll have to sort it and then count it."
The City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council told Saga Magazine in a statement
"The Council is currently working towards a full disregard for war pensions and this is currently being phased in as part of the agreement with the Royal British Legion. A full disregard will operate with effect from 1 April 2001. It is not possible for us to comment on the specific case of Mr. Griffin as this is the subject of legal proceedings."
Chester-le-Street, Derwentside, Easington, Gateshead, Manchester, North Tyneside, Redcar & Cleveland, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Tynedale, Wear Valley.
e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk