Gurkha pensions rights campaigners at Trafalgar Square as part of a march on Friday 19 August to call for equal benefits to compare with the British counterparts they served with. — Gurkha pension rights campaigners at Trafalgar Square as part of a march on 19 August to call for equal benefits to compare with the British counterparts they served with.

Gurkhas

Gurkha pension rights campaigners hope for progress with new Government talks

Campaigners for Gurkha pension rights are hoping for a positive outcome from fresh talks with the Government.

A march last week was the latest call for equal benefits to compare with the British counterparts they served with.

Members of the Gurkha Pension Scheme before 1997 receive a smaller payment.

Gurkha veteran Gyan Raj Rai told Forces News: "It is not only because of the cost of living or anything.

"We have lost everything – politically, socially, financially, everything we have lost.

"Many thousands of veterans and their families died," he added.

It comes a year after former Gurkha servicemen ended a 13-day hunger strike after the Government agreed to enter talks with the Nepalese Embassy over equal pensions for veterans, in August 2021.

The group had not eaten for almost a fortnight, with one 60-year-old admitted to hospital with heart problems, before returning to his strike outside Downing Street.

A small remembrance event is happening tomorrow to commemorate the hunger strikes called off from the written agreement between the governments of Nepal and UK to hold G2G talks. The hunger strikers will be there as well as representatives of different Gurkha veteran groups. pic.twitter.com/F1EEHm7oPi
— Gurkha Equal Rights (@gurkha_rights) August 18, 2022

The Gurkhas, recruited from Nepal, have a reputation as hard and loyal fighters and are known for the trademark curved kukri blades they carry sheathed on their belts.

Those who served from 1948 to 2007 were members of the Gurkha Pension Scheme until the differences between Gurkhas' terms and conditions of service and those of their British counterparts were removed.

Serving Gurkhas, and those with service on or after 1 July 1997, could then opt to transfer into the Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS).

The change was brought in after an amendment to immigration rules in 2007, backdated to July 1997, meant more retired Gurkhas were likely to settle in the UK on discharge, whereas the Gurkha Pension Scheme had lower rates as it had assumed they would return to Nepal where the cost of living was significantly lower.

A year's service after 1 July 1997 counts as a year's service in the AFPS, however, a year's service before 1 July 1997 only counts as a proportion of a full-service year – between 23% and 36% depending on rank.