Victim upset by pension delay

Victim upset by pension delay

10 June 2020

A TROUBLES victim has said that a delay in paying a pension to those injured feels like a “kick in the guts”.

Forty-one years after Peter Heathwood was left paralysed after being shot at home by UDA gunmen in a case of mistaken identity, he has called on politicians to push through the pension payments as a matter of urgency.

Mr Heathwood’s father died of a heart attack after seeing his son being removed by paramedics in a body bag.

The 67 year-old Killough man says his late wife, Anne, is another unrecorded victim of that night.

Mrs Heathwood, who died aged 51, witnessed the attack and was later diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), from which she never recovered.

The pensions legislation were passed as a UK act and became law in January. Payments of between £2,000-£10,000 a year to victims should have started by May 29 and would have included a back payment of five years’ pension.

A row has broken out between Stormont and London as to who pays the pensions, while the Northern Ireland Office, the DUP and Sinn Féin are in dispute regarding who should receive the payment.

Mr Heathwood is a member of the WAVE Injured Group which has been campaigning for years to have pensions paid to people who were physically injured or traumatised during the Troubles.

A former teacher and insurance salesman, the father-of-three was unable to work after the attack and has survived on benefits ever since.

Mr Heathwood spoke exclusively  to the Recorder about the extent of his disappointment at not receiving the pension as promised.

“This has been like a kick to the guts. Sometimes I’m lost for words. Annoyance isn’t strong enough, anger isn’t strong enough to express how I feel, how we all feel,” he said.

“There’s also great sadness and also depression across the board. I have been talking to the WAVE Injured Group. I know some members who broke down and cried when they heard that the pension had not gone through.

“This was something was to be given to us after such a long time and now has been taken of us again. It’s a law now. It seems that if the law doesn’t suit politicians, they can just ignore it.”

Mr Heathwood, whose health has recently declined, explained what the pension payment would mean to him.

“This is not about expensive holidays to the Caribbean, it’s about being able to pay for the little or extra things around the house, like getting it painted, replacing roof tiles, getting the grass cut.

“There was a sense that you have come through the Troubles, that the State had recognised that and is looking after you. When they don’t give you the pension, it looks like they don’t care about you.”

The toll of campaigning for a pension has also taken its toll on Mr Heathwood and his fellow victims.

He said: “I have met all shades of politicians in London and Belfast, lobbied parties, church leaders, the lot.

“We had been campaigning for 10 years and it’s been an uphill push. This law was passed in January and it was like a weight being lifted off my shoulders. I worry that as I get older that I will end up in a nursing home and I worry that I won’t be able to afford it. We are all getting older, some of our members are nearly 80. As I was injured at a young age and was in a good job but I didn’t have time to build up a private pension.

“We were often told how wonderful we were, given a pat on the head but nothing was ever done about it. It was really down to [former NI Secretary of State] Lord Peter Hain when he got into the Lords and mobilised the House to lobby for it.

“We went to Westminster twice to meet MPs and they were shocked that we hadn’t received any pension. We thought we had been taken care of.

“All of us have been living on benefits ever since. I did get a criminal injuries claim, but the amount was quite derogatory.”

Originally from Belfast, Mr Heathwood’s family settled in Killough in 1990.

While he calls on politicians to reach a compromised agreement, Mr Heathwood is not confident about the prospect.

He said: “I’m not confident that this will go anywhere as the people involved don’t seem to care. Politicians need to recognise that we are all getting older and time is running out for many.

“I find it humiliating even to ask for this pension, let alone to have to keep telling my story of what happened to me all the years ago. To relive the horror is a bit like prostituting yourself.

“This just works me up and I become stressed and angry. I’m trying to avoid that now. But I really thought those days were over.”

Strangford MP Jim Shannon accused Sinn Féin of stalling the implementation of the pensions and of a “despicable abuse of power”.

The DUP man said: “For too long, Sinn Féin ministers have misused power to halt this and it is past time that government stepped in to ensure that the help and support that is needed.

“The irony of Sinn Féin withholding funding from victims is scandalous and we will continue to pressure government to step in on this issue on the way that they have done in other issues.”

South Down Sinn Fein MP Chris Hazzard accused the government of “rolling back” from a previously agreed position.

He said: “It has been very clear that the British government has been turning its back on the internationally agreed Stormont House Agreement legacy mechanisms.

“It is also now also rejecting the Westminster legal definition of a victim in its approach to dealing with victims’ payments.

“Sinn Féin remains committed to the provision of a victims’ payment based on need and the full implementation of the Stormont House Agreement in a human rights compliant manner.

“The recent Westminster Regulations will potentially exclude thousands of victims from the Nationalist and Republican community from accessing the payment scheme.

“The Tory government approach is both discriminatory and unacceptable. It will introduce a hierarchy of victimhood and will undermine attempts to heal the wounds of the past and promote a genuine reconciliation process.”