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Ministry of Defence admits "maladministration".
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Post Ministry of Defence admits "maladministration". 
London Daly Telegraph.

Ministry of Defence admits it was wrong to deny war widow a pension
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:30AM BST 21/07/2008

The widow of a war hero who had been wrongfully denied a pension by Whitehall bureaucrats for years was celebrating a victory after the Ministry of Defence admitted "maladministration".


Capt John Nunneley personally haranged the former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Dozens of Daily Telegraph readers gave more than £5,000 to Gillian Norbury after hearing of her plight, but she has now been freed from poverty after the Veterans' Agency admitted it was wrong to deny her a war widow's pension.

For five years a tireless campaign has been led by one of husband Lt Billy Norbury's comrades, Capt John Nunneley, which included personally haranguing the former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mr Nunneley, 85, has been "apprehended" by police, travelled from his Surrey home to Scotland to argue with the Overseas Pension Department and protested outside Downing Street.

He finally confronted Me Blair last year after bluffing his way into a veterans tea party at No 10 telling the then Prime Minister: "I protest most strongly at the inhumane treatment of Lt Billy Norbury".

Lt Norbury won an immediate Military Cross for an action in Burma in 1944 in which he received horrific injuries to his feet, legs and abdomen.

Fifty-four years later the decorated King's African Rifles officer died penniless in a public hospital in South Africa after decades of agony and operations.

After selling the family home and its contents and despite his wife Gillian working part-time while nursing her husband, the Norburys ran out of money to support the medical bills. For decades, following alleged bureaucratic bungles by the Ministry of Defence and the Veterans' Agency, Lt Norbury, MC, was denied a war disability pension because he had enlisted in a "colonial" regiment.

After his death in 1998 Mrs Norbury was forced to leave her family behind in South Africa, where one of her sons was murdered and another died in a flying accident, to live off a state pension in a flat in Newbury, Berks.

But now the Veterans' Agency has finally caved in admitting the "maladministration" and will pay Mrs Norbury a pension plus a modest back-payment.

In a letter to Derek Twigg, the Veterans' Minister, Mr Nunneley wrote of the "army of heavily entrenched bureaucrats" who had obstructed the case for five years.

The minister replied that the victory it was "in no small way down to your dogged determination to fight Mrs Norbury's case".

Mrs Norbury said without the "terrier-like" help from Mr Nunneley she would never have won. "Without his determination and utter refusal to give up on my behalf he has done everything no other person would have done."

Richard Benyon, her MP, said the case was an example of "a disgraceful performance by officials" and "appalling maladministration" in the pensions system.

The MoD said "new evidence" - a third letter from Mr Norbury's doctor stating he had died from war wounds - meant it was now possible to award the pension.

It claimed that the pension was back-dated from her claim, two years ago. Both Mr Nunneley and Mrs Norbury had to accept the MoD's decision despite making their original claim five years ago.

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So, the MoD mongrels still get their revenge?

Miserable barstewards.


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Well.....Once again Mr Twigg hs been advised of that, which we PJM'mers know and understand, so very well....of the persistently obstructive efforts of what Mr Nunneley aptly described as an "army of heavily entrenched bureaucrats"...... Mr Nunnelley also serves as a dynamic example of the positive power of dogged persistence.....an example that the Fight4 team has every intention of emulating....


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'an army of heavily entrenched bureaucrats'
'a disgraceful performance by officials'
'appalling maladministration'


Seems they missed out 'misrepresentation of the truth and obfuscation' otherwise it is the same deal we have been dealt with by the suits who run our country and haven't they done a great job of ruining it, but not one of them is ever held to account for incompetence, stupidity, or maladministration.

They can do what they want and even when found out are never held responsible - the same as MP's who fiddle, sorry slight error, make a mistake with their expenses and employ relatives who are not really employed but paid for by Joe Public, and sift off by mistake expenses to their own companies.

Can they really blame us for being disloyal to such a bunch of numpties.

They have no legal right to tell us that permission has not been given to wear the PJM and they have no legal right to stop us wearing the PJM wherever we want to but eight still think they have and could be heading for a Judicial Review or maladministration claim. Imagine what it would cost them if costs of say, £500 only, were awarded to 35,000 veterans. More of Joe Public's money squandered when they could have put a stop to it a long time ago but will they care, not a bit they are immune and devoid of shame. Is it now too late for them? Well time will tell.

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mcdangle wrote:
'an army of heavily entrenched bureaucrats'
'a disgraceful performance by officials'
'appalling maladministration'


Imagine what it would cost them if costs of say, £500 only, were awarded to 35,000 veterans.


Let me hazard a guess.

They wouldn't pay a brass razoo.

It would all be taken out of 'public funds'.


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