HEARTBROKEN Stan Dubrawski has blasted bureaucrats who he claims are keeping him and his wife apart.

Bolton pensioner Stan, aged 81, has been battling with officials for more than seven months to make arrangements to be permanently reunited with his Polish bride Jadwiga, 40.

As reported in the BEN the couple tied the knot at Bolton register office in April last year.

Jadwiga flew back to Nysa in Poland shortly afterwards, planning to finalise arrangements for coming to Bolton to live with Stan.

Since then, she has not been back to the marital home in St Augustine Street, Halliwell, because an application for Stan to receive a spouse's supplement to his state pension has still not been agreed.

Stan said: "I can't believe it has not been organised yet. How difficult can it be? My wife has sent her birth and marriage certificates and all they wanted to look at.

"First they said they hadn't got them, then they said they had. I don't know what's going on. All we want is to live together as husband and wife over here in Bolton. But we can't do that unless we know there will be some money for her to live on."

Now he has asked Bolton North East MP David Crausby to take up his case.

Stan was born in Poland but came to Bolton more than 50 years ago and worked in the demolition trade before retiring. The couple met on one of Stan's trips back to his homeland and romance blossomed over three years before they married.

Stan has been quizzed by the Pensions and Overseas Benefits headquarters about the length of time he has spent in Poland during the last few years but he is adamant each trip has been shorter than the three months allowed under pension rules.

He said: "I'm beginning to feel as though they are being awkward because of my age and the age gap. That hurts because it is a real marriage."

During the battle to get his pension increased Stan has had to dip into his savings to send money to Jadwiga because her rights to benefits over there stopped when she got married.

He added: "She manages to phone me just once a week. The last time she said: "Poland is supposed to have the red-tape, not England. I'm beginning to wonder whether I want to come if they're always going to be so difficult. "

A spokesman from the Benefits Agency said that they would not be able to comment about individual cases, especially as the outcome had not been decided.

The spokesman said: "In cases which involve overseas pensions then it can be a lenghty and complicated process. It all hinges on whether his wife is a dependant and whether she is under pensionable age herself.

"We thank the Bolton Evening News for getting in touch with us. We will be looking into it and expect a speedy outcome."

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