7 January 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Review the structure of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme."
Details of Petition:
"so that badly injured soldiers are properly compensated for ALL injuries sustained. Furthermore the recent case of Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson to be reviewed using the new criteria. We have a moral duty of care to soldiers that go to war in our name, at present that responsibility is being side stepped."
Read the Government’s response
The Ministry of Defence has in place a modern, fair and comprehensive compensation package for those personnel who are injured or rendered ill as a result of service in the Armed Forces. For the first time, our personnel can claim compensation for illness or injury whilst they are still serving, and those more seriously injured (such as Lance Bombardier Parkinson) receive, in addition to a tax-free lump sum, a tax-free, inflation proof Guaranteed Income Payment for life, which may, over a lifetime, be worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The Government are currently considering responses to consultation over our proposal that the most seriously injured will in future receive 100% of the tariff value for all their injuries sustained in a single incident, subject to the maximum lump sum award of £285,000. The proposal has the full support of the Service Chiefs of Staff and is specifically designed to reinforce the focus of resources on the most seriously injured, in line with the original intent of the Scheme. Moreover, is also proposed that qualifying serious multiple injury cases that have received awards under the current rule, will receive an extra lump sum award to bring them up to the same level as those determined under the new rule, following its introduction.
This Government has made a number of significant improvements for serving personnel and the fact is that we are doing more today than has ever been done to support our serving personnel and veterans and we take our responsibilities to our serving personnel and veterans very seriously.