The letter by the president of the National Association of Pensioners (June 5) regarding the abatement of social security pensions by the amount of any service pension leaves readers little the wiser on the issue raised in Joseph Buttigieg’s letter (May 31).

Buttigieg’s point was that recipients of British Services pensions should receive the social security pension without any abatement as their service pension comes from abroad. In 1978, those legislating decided to ignore acquired pension rights and the State effectively misappropriated financial benefits of citizens without compensation.

As the provisions of the law apply to everyone in receipt of, or entitled to, a service pension, any solution must, likewise, apply equally to all irrespective of the source of pension.

Those who argue in favour of special treatment for British Services pensioners forget two things. The first is that this is already a privileged category because the amount of service pension deducted from the social security one is not what they are receiving but the much lower amount they were originally awarded. Secondly, civil service, police and AFM pensioners have their Treasury pension deducted in full and do not receive any cost of living additions on their service pension after retirement.

In effect, therefore, acceptance of the claim to ignore in toto the service pension of retired British Services personnel would accentuate the existing discriminatory regime, which dates from 1997. Hardly a just and equitable measure from a State aspiring to be an example to other EU members!

The only fair solution is for the State to acknowledge that the 1978 measure was wrong and to start acting justly with all.