A RETIRED soldier who has multiple sclerosis (MS) is currently working in a call centre to cover his medical bills as he was refused an Army pension.
Richard Brown (66), from Waterford city, served in Cyprus and the Congo during his 17-year career in the Defence Forces and has been unable to receive a pension since his retirement.
Mr Brown left the Defence Forces in 1979 and applied for an Army disability pension in 1988. He says the Galway-based Army Pensions Board rejected his request because his application was received a year too late.
Army Pensions Acts require that an application for a pension must be made within a statutory time limit of one year after discharge in wound or injury cases and eight years in cases of illness or disease.
"This has been going on for over 20 years now," Mr Brown says. "I didn't know anything about having to apply for a pension in a certain period of time and this fact was not made clear to me while I was serving."
Mr Brown says he developed epilepsy as a result of his time in the Defence Forces and also regularly suffers from severe headaches.
He believes the problems stem from bangs to the head received in the line of service and from exposure to gun and tank fire during training and overseas service.
He has appealed to the Department of Defence, local TDs and the Army Pensions Board, but says none of the avenues has offered a solution. "The people in the pensions board have told me I'm due a pension but that I won't be able get it because I was too late making my application."
Mr Brown now works 25 hours a week in a call centre close to his home to help cover his medical bills and MS treatment costs, which were €1,500 last year.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Defence said it was not the department's policy to comment on individual cases but that there were strict deadlines for disability pensions applications.
