A new campaign is calling for a special pension to be given to victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Launched by the Wave Trauma Centre, which is a charity that provides support for those affected by the Troubles, the campaign wants a special pension for those so severely injured through no fault of their own during the Troubles, meaning they were unable to build up their own occupational pension.

Wave Trauma Centre has written to Members of the Northern Irish Assembly, MPs, church leaders and other opinion formers urging them to back their campaign. It is estimated that there are around 500 people with some form of permanent life changing injuries.

Wave Trauma Centre CEO Sandra Peake: “The levels of compensation paid through the adversial Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme were wholly inadequate and there was no disability discrimination legislation to protect them.

“Frankly these people were not expected to live beyond a few years. But they have and the passage of time has compounded their problems as many suffer increasing physical distress, as a result of deteriorating health and chronic pain. Most of them are moving into old age without the financial security that they otherwise would have had”.

Wave Trauma Centre injured group co-ordinator Alan McBride added: “We have had numerous meetings with all the local political parties from 2011 to the present. They are all on record as saying they support the idea of a pension for severely injured. But saying they support it is about as far as it has gone.

“Unfortunately the injured group have hit a brick wall with regard to the two executive parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein, who are unable to agree about who is eligible for a pension. Every one of the injured group at Wave and the vast, vast majority of the other severely injured have suffered horrendously through no fault of their own”.

“It has been particularly hard to watch as groups led by those with links to paramilitary organisations will be funded to the tune of millions of pounds from the Social Investment Fund, and that a further £50m is being set aside to pave the way for the transition from mafia style gangsterism to becoming ordinary citizens.

“The Wave injured group recognise that the paramilitaries who so grievously damaged them have to leave the stage and do not begrudge money being used to help Northern Ireland transition. But they wonder how this money could be found so quickly when they have been campaigning for years with nothing to show for it beyond tea and sympathy.

“If the devolved institutions are, for whatever reason, unable to deliver on this then the government at Westminster should step in because the plight of the severely injured is as much a legacy of Northern Ireland’s past as anything else and it must be addressed because it would be shameful if they were to be left behind”.

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