A CLANFIELD war veteran is campaigning to gain council tax exemption for war pensioners.
Allen Parton was disturbed to find that East Hampshire District Council is among the two per cent in the country that count a war pension above a certain level as income when they calculate council tax and housing benefit.
Mr Parton was serving with the Royal Navy when he was badly injured in a road accident during the Gulf War. He spent five years in hospital and is now confined to a wheelchair.
He was attending a British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association convention when he realised that things were different in East Hampshire.
"Someone asked 'who pays council tax on their war pension?' and I was the only one who put my hand up," he said.
"I believe a war pension is a compensation payment for service to your country.
"Servicemen could be paying tax to the council every month, when being able to keep that amount of money – small though it might be – would be an extra help."
The Royal British Legion's head of public affairs, Jeremy Lillies, said: "The position on whether a war pensioner gets a full or partial allowance depends on where they live. It is a postcode lottery because the allowance is at the discretion of each individual council.
"In the present unsatisfactory situation we would like to see every council give a full 100 per cent disregard, thus removing this very unfair anomaly."
A spokesman for EHDC said: "We understand Mr Parton's concerns and council tax staff are talking to him directly about his circumstances.
"The current overall policy is that war disablement pension of up to a maximum of £116 per week is not taken into account in the assessment of council tax. Pensions over this amount are currently taken into account.
"The council is re-examining the implications of removing the £116 maximum so that no element of war disabled pension would be taken into account in the assessment of council tax."