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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many claims under the Armed Forces compensation scheme were successful in each of the last five years; what estimate he has made of the number of likely successful cases per year under the proposed new scheme; and if he will make a statement. [153877] Mr. Caplin: The Ministry of Defence provides benefits for death, injury or illness due to service through the War Pensions Scheme and the Armed Forces Pension Scheme. The number of awards for new claims under the War Pensions Scheme in the last five years is set out as follows (the figures are taken from Table 2.5 of the recently published March edition of the War Pensions Quarterly Statistics). This includes awards where a pension was paid and those where only a gratuity was paid: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number 1998-99 6,810 1999-2000 7,445 2000-01 6,385 2001-02 6,955 2002-03 5,440 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Current Information Technology systems do not enable us to identify the numbers who have also received attributable pensions from the Armed Forces Pension Scheme. However, the overall figure will be lower as the benefits can only be paid to those who are medically invalided. The new Armed Forces Compensation Scheme will provide benefits for currently serving personnel for injury, ill-health or death which is caused after 5 April 2005. The number of claims is expected to build up gradually over an extended period but to remain lower than the current level of claims against the War Pensions Scheme. This is because the latter covers periods of conscription, of worldwide conflict and of much larger than at present armed forces.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

153877; 418 c787W;418 c807W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Compensation Armed forces Applications Injuries Pensions War pensions Armed forces compensation scheme

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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