Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 2:58 pm on 14 May 2007.
Baroness Crawley
Government Whip, Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
2:58,
14 May 2007
My Lords, we have 26,300 Gurkha pensioners in the Gurkha pension scheme, which can be activated after 15 years' service and so is a pension for life, often from age 33. I asked my officials for comparators to find out what that pension actually meant in terms of the Nepalese standard of living. For instance, an engineer would earn £147 a month and a warrant officer would retire early in his life on £171 a month. I would be very happy to write to the noble Lord.
I was very pleased, when looking into the history of the Gurkhas for this Question, to see that Field Marshal Sir William Slim said of them:
"I first met the 6th Gurkha Rifles in 1915 in Gallipoli. There I was so struck by their bearing in one of the most desperate battles in history that I resolved ... to try to serve with them".
And of course he did.
Annotations
Boz Baral
Posted on 19 Jul 2007 11:36 am (Report this annotation)
Since a Gurkha pensioner chosing to live in Nepal would find his British Pension significantly higher than local working professionals (according to the statement here) hence we do not feel that they should be paid in par with their British counterparts although they retired from the same role, should we also look into reducing pensions (both state and work) of those British born people who retire in sunny Spain/Bulgaria/Malta and increase it for those who wish to live in Japan/Switzerland? Next step: Shall we vote to increase (state/work) pensions for those who wish to retire in Chelsea/Belgravia and reduce it for those who wish to live in Wales or Scotland!
Can someone from the House supply a fair justification for these arguments, please?
Thank you.