War Veterans (Support) (Hansard, 15 January 2003)

§ Dr. Moonie

Since my appointment as the Government's Minister for Veterans in March 2001, I have been taking steps to provide all veterans from Her Majesty's armed forces with a co-ordinated focus for dealing with their concerns. I have set out three main priorities for this work. Firstly to pull together the Government's response to issues that cut across Government Departments, such as veterans' homelessness or ill-health; secondly to ensure that lessons learnt are absorbed into MOD's policies for service personnel; and thirdly, to improve communication by publicising the assistance offered to veterans by central, devolved and local government as well as giving veterans' organisations the opportunity to represent their collective and individual concerns to Government at ministerial level.

In terms of financial support, all injured service personnel who are deemed to have sustained a disability due to their work in the armed forces are eligible for a 637W tax-free 'War Disablement Pension' from the Veterans Agency. They may also qualify for an attributable pension under the Armed Forces Pension Scheme.

The Veterans Agency has always provided potential claimants with help and advice while they are completing their pension applications through a Freephone Helpline. That service was extended in April 2002 to provide all veterans and their dependents with a first point of contact and advice and information on where to access the support that is available to veterans from both the Government and the additional support provided by the veterans' charitable organisations. This support is provided to help ease the transition back into the civilian community in terms of employment and housing resettlement.

Many of those whose service included deployments during the Falklands and the Gulf Conflicts will have already left the armed forces and some of those have ongoing health concerns that are being treated through the support provided under the national health service.

In relation to the Gulf Conflict of 1990–91, we accept that some veterans are ill and that some have died. In our policy document: "Gulf Veterans Illnesses: A New Beginning" dated 14 July 1997, we set out how we would deal with this complex issue. We adopted three principles. First, that all Gulf veterans will have prompt access to medical advice from the MOD's Gulf Veterans' Medical Assessment. Second, that there will be appropriate research into veterans' illnesses and factors which might have a bearing on these. Third, the MOD will make available to the public any information it possesses which is of potential relevance to this issue. The policy document and information about what we have done in respect of Gulf veterans' illnesses can be found on the internet at: www.mod.ulc/issues/gulfwar.

At present I am not aware of any evidence that demonstrates that veterans from any particular campaign or conflict need additional support. But we remain open minded and one of the working groups established as part of the Government's current Veterans Initiative has placed a contract with King's College London for research to provide evidence to support policy decisions to improve the delivery of cross-departmental support to veterans and identify any areas of unmet need. The next stage of this research will include interviews with key stakeholder organisations, such as the South Atlantic Medal Association 82, The Royal British Legion and Combat Stress as well as individual veterans. The aim will be to gather information on the needs of ex-service personnel, particularly the more vulnerable who are struggling with financial or emotional problems.