You will appreciate that, as an advocate, you deal with many veterans with heart-wrenching problems, some in the last stages of cancer, some on oxygen whose lungs are shot, etc.

Naturally one feels for such people, and you must be able to divorce this from your mind when you go home. Thankfully, I have been successful in this area, most times anyway. All too often I am not able to get the veteran's disabilities as being service related and gaining the deserved disability pension. Often this is because in the past an application has been stuffed up (very common) or because the matter has been let go too long.

The occasions when I feel saddest are when the widows present themselves for a war widow's pension, full of hope and confident of getting it, and you know that they have no hope of getting it. Over the years, there has been a rumour in existence that when a Gold card holder dies his Gold card goes to his widow. This is given this credence because, if a couple are on a service pension and the husband dies of an accepted disability, his widow is issued with a Gold card with his name VX, NX, QX or whatever number followed by an A.

The only time that a widow is automatically granted the War Widow's Pension and the attaching Gold card is if her late husband was a TPI, TII, Intermediate Pension or on the Extreme Disablement Pension. In all other cases, the veteran has to be selective of what he dies from. I come across literally hundreds of instances where it is obvious that I could have got the disabilities listed on the death certificate accepted as being service related had the matter been drawn to my attention while the veteran was alive, thus protecting the widow's future.

The War Widow's Pension is currently a bit over $600 per fortnight, it is not means tested, carries a Gold card and some other privileges, and is paid on top of the Single Service Pension, thus effectively doubling the widow's income. To those who do not have the level of pension set-out above or who have impairments that have not been accepted, get your disability pension looked at. I am happy to help and while I am not holding myself out to be the greatest advocate around, I have done well over 12,000 cases over the years and almost 3,000 review boards hearings, so I know how they think.

For your partner's sake, have a deep think about her future. Anyhow, in these tough times, you should be trying to maximize your pension.