Edited for brevity.
A former British Army Gurkha is living in Britain on a pension five times less than his UK counterparts, a tribunal heard today. Lal Budha, 44, served with the Gurkhas for more than 23 years in Hong Kong, Brunei, South Korea and the Falklands. He was discharged in 2002 on medical grounds, having been airlifted to the UK for a liver transplant. The father-of-two now lives in High Wycombe and gets £95 [$175 US] a month pension, a tribunal at Croydon, south London, heard today. Mr Budha is claiming that the Ministry of Defence discriminated against him on the grounds of race or ethnic origin. He is claiming that his pay and pension were less than British soldiers and he was unable to see his wife as much as his British counterparts during his service as a Gurkha. His lawyer Henrietta Hill told the tribunal that Mr Budha was recruited from a village in western Nepal in 1979. In 1992 he suffered jaundice and hepatitis and in 2002 was discharged on medical grounds and given indefinite leave to remain in the UK. His recruitment in Nepal had been based on an historical arrangement between the British and Indian armies, and the Gurkhas have served alongside British soldiers and have an exemplary record, Ms Hill said. The tribunal heard that Mr Budha was paid about £38,000 [$69,600 US] less than a comparable British soldier. He receives about £95 a month in pension, compared to the £515 [$944 US] a British soldier could expect.
Of course, there may be a lot of mitigating circumstances--percentage of disability, years of active service vs. reserve service, etc. In the US, I believe 20 years of active service warrants a full pension, correct? |