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Ex-servicemen: Health

Answer

It is only possible to identify veterans who have a health condition related to their service if they have made a claim and received an award under the relevant compensation scheme. The War Pensions Scheme (WPS) provided no-fault compensation for all ex-service personnel where illness, injury or death was caused by service before 6 April 2005. The Armed Forces and Reserve Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) which came into force on 6 April 2005 provided no-fault compensation for injury, illness or death caused by service on or after that date.The following data, available only from 2002, provide the number of first time claims against these schemes as the best way of indicating how many personnel were diagnosed with service-related injuries or long-term illness in the time frame requested. They will therefore exclude ongoing payments through these schemes received by personnel diagnosed as suffering from in-service injuries or illness before 2002.The following table provides the number of first claims awarded under the WPS by calendar year and by type of award. Ongoing war pensions reflect those who receive a regular pension, gratuity payments are a one off single payment, while nil awards are those that are awarded when it is accepted that a particular disablement is a result of service, yet no monetary compensation is given.

	All	Ongoing	Gratuity	Nil
All	46,545	12,140	23,290	11,115
2002¹	3,870	1,045	1,670	1,155
2003	7,330	1,965	3,310	2,055
2004	6,905	1,755	3,485	1,665
2005	6,820	1,760	3,515	1,545
2006	6,185	1,590	3,170	1,420
2007	5,450	1,485	2,770	1,195
2008	5,775	1,495	3,050	1,225
2009²	4,215	1,045	2,320	850
¹ Includes January to September only, data between October and December 2002 cannot be provided in this type of breakdown.
² Includes January to September only, data between October and December 2009 have not yet been published.
Note:
As figures have been rounded to the nearest five, totals may not add due to rounding.

Between 1 November 2005 and 30 September 2009, there were a total of 1,995 individuals awarded under the AFCS who were not in service on 1 January 2010. This is broken down by year as follows:

	Awards
2006	200
2007	360
2008	790
2009	445

A total of 195 individuals have been awarded under both schemes.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

505 c207-8W; 314386

Session

2009-10

Subjects

Armed forces Health Health services Veterans

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk