A bill to provide pensions and benefits to all war vets and their spouses not just those who were injured during service was passed with all party support in the House of Assembly last Friday.

The Pensions and Gratuties (War Service) Amendment Bill 2009 expands on amendments made two years ago to the original 1947 bill.

In 2007 the Government amended the War Pensions Act to include members of the Home Guard and all those who served both in Bermuda and abroad. The Minister of Finance also doubled the pension benefits to $800.

Introducing the amendment yesterday Junior Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety Mininster Walter Roban said the 2007 amendment extended benefits to those who served with the Bermuda Militia Artillery both home and abroad.

But since then a number of anomolies have come to light. The new bill would broaden the benefits available, broaden the categories of those eligible for benefits and to update offences under the law, said Mr. Roban.

Maximum fines for fraud are now set at $5,000 while the maximum fine for false statements is $2,500.

Mr. Roban said: "The bill will remove the provision that the illness or disability that requires care must have been caused by the war service in order for the relevant costs to be paid."

The law provides for some provision for overseas care up to $5,000.

Mr. Roban added: "The bill provides that members of the Bermuda voluntary force or homeguard, which was not a militia unit, are eligible for pensions and benefits.

"Essentially all persons who performed war service and their widows will be available for pensions and benefits."

All the amendments are backdated to April 1, 2007 to bring the legislation in line with the original amendment.

The War Pensions Commissioners will decide on application, eliminating the need for medical examinations.

The bill was welcomed by United Bermuda Party MP Shawn Crockwell but he raised concerns that discrepancies were not picked up two years ago given that veterans did not have a long life expectancy.

And he wondered if Government could estimate what cost it was going to entail.

Government backbencher Zane DeSilva said the UBP had decades to bring in such legislation but had not done so and that the bill would go a long way in helping those in need.

Opposition Health spokesman Louise Jackson said she was glad mariners and the Home Guard were being included in the bill but she complained the War Pension Commissioners sometimes took up to three months between hearings which gave applicants unnecessarily long waits.

And she repeated her concerns that there was no doctor who specialised in elderly issues attached to the hospital.

UBP MP John Barritt said discrepancies in bills could be better ironed out before they came to the House if there was a committee involving technical officers and the Opposition.

However, Walter Roban explained that while the legislation had not been in place war vets of all descriptions had not been missing out. Payments had been made but now the law was catching up with the practice.