TROUBLES pensions must apply to "absolutely everybody who's been injured" before any money is paid out, Sinn Féin northern leader Michelle O'Neill has insisted.
The party has come under pressure from across the political spectrum to designate a Stormont department to administer the scheme and begin to process payments to victims of the Troubles.
It has repeatedly refused to because draft criteria for the scheme narrows the definition of victims to exclude those injured at their own hand or sentenced to more than two-and-a-half years in prison.
The party insists the "legal definition of a victim of the conflict" is the 2006 Victims and Survivors Order description as someone "physically or psychologically injured as a result of or in consequence of a conflict-related incident".
The DUP and Secretary of State Brandon Lewis both maintain that because the legislation was passed by Westminster in March is is now law and cannot be changed.
Ms O'Neill said the British government has "without consultation brought forward a scheme that's discriminatory... that a whole section of the population who had been injured will be left out".
"That's not acceptable so for me those things need to be fixed for the pension to be paid out."
The Deputy First Minister insisted "all victims should have their pension and I think they've been waiting for too long".
"I want to see everybody receive their pension and I want to see it paid to absolutely everybody who's been injured".
Ms O'Neill said she continues "to make that case with the British government".
"I certainly will not stand for any discrimination. I think that it's important that we get this right. This has been a long time in the making and it was Sinn Féin that argued for this to be in the legacy consultation which the British government carried out and I'll continue to make the case for a pension for all people."
