A Moray war widow will march on parliament to demand that “unfair” rules governing pension payments are overturned.
Maureen Jarvis’s navigator husband, Alan Campbell, was killed when an RAF Lossiemouth jet crashed in the Western Isles in 1990.
But, because she remarried in 2014, she is no longer eligible for payments from the Ministry of Defence.
New legislation means services widows whose partners died between 1973 and 2005 – and who remarried before April last year – no longer qualify for pensions.
The 60-year-old has been contacted by several Moray women in the same predicament since launching a crusade against the system in February.
On Wednesday, Mrs Jarvis and two other local war widows will join a demonstration outside Westminster in an effort to force government ministers into revising the rules.
Each woman will hold a protest banner aloft at the Cromwell Green entrance to the building, along with pictures of their husbands who died while serving their country.
Mrs Jarvis said: “Women from all over the country will gather outside the parliament building, we want this to be a turning point.
“Over the past few months the opposition to this has spread, it’s getting to the stage where the government will have to do something.
“There were a lot of conflicts between 1973 and 2005, so this affects a lot of widows – and some of them have lost out on a lot.
“We are just asking for the same treatment other widows are receiving.”
Moray MP Angus Robertson backed Mrs Jarvis’s cause after meeting her and discussing her concerns.
He said: “This anomaly is having a completely disproportionate effect on the women who have been caught in it.
“It is completely unfair and discriminatory.
“I have called on the government to take action to correct this and it is very disappointing that they are refusing to do so.
“The pressure needs to be kept up, and next week’s protest will send a clear message that the government’s refusal to deal with it is unacceptable.”
However, the MoD has said that it abides by a “longstanding principle” not to alter legislation as it would impact on the public purse.
The MoD has arranged for Veterans Welfare Service advisers to discuss alternative means of support with widows who need financial assistance.
