The Ministry of Defence has hinted thousands of Gurkhas could miss out on receiving a pension from the Army despite a lengthy inquiry into fairness.

Two Kent MPs joined the debate on the ongoing All Party Parliamentary Group inquiry in the House of Commons yesterday.

But defence minister Anna Soubry said “improvements to pensions schemes are not made retrospectively”.

She said: “Those who did not serve the requisite period of time or who came to this country on a pre-1997 pension cannot expect their pension arrangements to change. It would be the same in the case of a British soldier.

“Those who receive a pension are bound by the rules of the game.”

After 1997 Gurkhas received an additional amount irrelevant of where they'd served but since 2007 Gurkhas joining have received the same pension as the rest of the Army.

The first Gurkha pension scheme was established in 1947 between the Indian, Nepalese and British governments.

Ms Soubry added “historical anomalies” should be the focus of the inquiry.

One of those is the case of some 7,000 Gurkhas who do not qualify because they did not serve the required 15 years.

The Royal Gurkha Rifles are based in Folkestone at the Shorncliffe barracks while they also have a unit based in Maidstone and several Nepalese communities are established across Kent including in Ashford and the Medway towns.

Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins, who is part of the inquiry team, said: "Many are veterans of the campaign in Malaya. When that ended, they returned to discover that they no longer had a role and they were made redundant."

"We should consider whether they should receive a pension, based on the number of years they served short of 15 years, as compensation for their service.

"We cannot rewrite the terms and conditions of 30 or 40 years ago or more. But the question is whether the spirit of those commitments [made in 1947] was fair and whether decisions were taken some years ago that would not be taken today.”

Chatham MP Tracey Crouch said: "My constituents tell me they want to live a life of dignity, not live on charity handouts from the Ministry of Defence and others, but unfortunately that is happening, and in many respects that is the nub of the issue.

"The point made about the 7,000 Gurkhas who get nothing at all is one that we need to look at - and thoroughly."

One suggestion was to use the LIBOR money levied by the government following the banking crisis could be used as a way of funding pensions.

Jackie Doyle Price (Con), MP for Thurrock who is leading inquiry, said: “We are comparing apples and oranges when we try to compare Gurkha pensions with British service pensions.

"They are separate and different, so the key is not equality but fairness. That is the spirit in which our inquiry has been undertaken.

“I ask that the Government look carefully at the adequacy of the Gurkha pension.”