Veterans Agency agrees to pay for Gulf hero’s funeral

2:08pm Thursday 1st November 2007

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BLUNDERING Government officers have been forced to admit another mistake in the war pension scandal of former veteran Terry Walker.

His bereaved parents, of Wheldrake, near York, have been sent £1,400 to help cover the costs of their son's funeral - five months ago.

The Veterans Agency initially told them it would not pay up until it had evidence from Terry's inquest to prove he had died of causes related to his service in the Gulf War.

But today it admitted there was no reason to wait for the inquest, which is not due to take place for another year, and sent the funeral grant to Terry's father, Ted.

Ted said: "This is another victory for Terry and for all the other war veterans who are in the same situation.

"After all these months of not admitting the real cause of Terry's death, they have done a U-turn and it paves the way for a lot of other veterans.

"They will be able to use Terry's case as an example and hopefully that will help them.

"That was always the aim - by fighting Terry's case, we were fighting the case of everybody."

The Press has been campaigning to bring Terry justice since his death, in June, and we have already won two major victories.

First, the Ministry of Defence agreed to transfer a percentage of his Army pension to support his 13-year-old daughter, Kirstey, Last month, they admitted they were wrong when they slashed Terry's war disablement pension by 60 per cent last Christmas.

The Minister of State for Defence, Lord Drayson, even made a public apology to his family in the House of Lords.

But the campaign will continue, to make sure Kirstey receives the full support she is entitled to.

We want the Veterans Agency to reinstate Terry's war pension for the benefit of his daughter, after it was stopped on his death.

Her brother, Stefan, is now aged 18 and so is now considered a non-dependent.

The Ministry of Defence previously told The Press that a war pension was only transferable to dependent children if the holder had died "of the injuries that their war pension had been allocated for".

Ted said: "By giving us the funeral grant, they are admitting that Terry did die from Gulf War Syndrome, so that is a big step forward."

Terry, who died at the age of 48, was invalided out of the army in 1992, his health in ruins.

For the next 15 years he suffered from a range of problems, including swollen joints and legs, blinding headaches, rashes and aches and post traumatic stress disorder.