Hoon meets war widow

Hoon meets war widow

Lianne Seymour's plight was brought up in Parliament

The widow of a soldier killed in the Gulf is meeting Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon after wrongly being told she would have to return part of her dead husband's salary.

Lianne Seymour, 27, is having a private meeting with Mr Hoon at the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday.

The mother-of-one was horrified when she received a letter telling her she would have to reimburse nine days' pay of her husband Ian's salary after he was killed in a helicopter crash in the first week of the war with Iraq.

She said she was also told she would only be allowed to apply for a three-month extension to stay on in her home with her three-year-old son Beck, following her husband's death.

She received an apology from the MoD who said she had been wrongly informed.

Tony Blair insisted Mrs Seymour would not have to pay back the money or leave her home after he faced questions in the Commons.

They get benefits that have always been considered reasonably generous by our own standards

Lewis Moonie
Defence minister

Moonie defends war widow benefits

Defence minister Dr Lewis Moonie said the fault lay with a Royal Marine welfare officer who had written the letter to Mrs Seymour.

Mr Seymour, 28, who worked as an operator mechanic (communications) second class with Plymouth-based 3 Commando Brigade was one of eight British servicemen killed when a US helicopter they were aboard crashed.

He was given full military honours at his funeral on 9 April at a service at St Michael's Church near the family home in Hamworthy, near Poole in Dorset.

Bank account

Mr Seymour, who grew up in Deeping St Nicholas in Lincolnshire, joined the Royal Navy after leaving St Guthlacs school in nearby Crowland.

How am I going to afford the basic needs for my son and family in the future?

Lianne Seymour

Because Mrs Seymour's husband was not identified immediately after the accident his salary continued to be paid into his bank account.

She said: "Unfortunately, I'm a very practical person. I do think about how I'm going to survive without him.

"I should have nothing to worry about apart from the fact that my husband is not coming home.

"That's all I should be worried about - not sat here thinking what benefits am I entitled to."

Dr Moonie told BBC Radio Five Live's Breakfast the local welfare officer responsible for the letter had written it with good intentions, but it had been a "terrible mistake".

"There is absolutely no question, nor has there ever been, of us receiving money from wages that we've overpaid to somebody who dies in our service - it does not happen," he said.