Supporting Our Veterans
Written by Rebecca Brisley | Personal Injury Team |15 November 2023
The Office for Veterans Affairs (OVA) is part of the Cabinet Office and is intended to lead the UK Government efforts to ensure that “the UK is the best place to be a veteran anywhere in the world, helping the nation fulfil its lifelong duty to those who have served in the Armed Forces.”
Since its inception, the OVA has been steadily improving services for veterans, with implementation of dedicated referral pathways for mental and physical health and homelessness (namely Op Courage, Op Restore and Op Fortitude).
But its great works don’t just stop there. The OVA is currently undertaking a consultation on the needs of veterans and their families. The consultation is called “Supporting Our Veterans”.
Chapter 4 of the Consultation deals with issues of Finance and Welfare and its opening paragraph outlines its aspirations to ensure that all veterans are aware of and can access the full range of offers from the UK government, including benefits, pensions and compensation.
Veterans may well be aware that any physical or mental injury might be compensated by application to the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, which is a tariff award system that provides set payments for injuries. This is a Scheme which does not require the applying person to prove any blame for injury, just to demonstrate that it arose out of military service.
However, what is perhaps not made clear at the moment, is that both serving and retired military personnel may well also be able to pursue a civil personal injury claim. Making a claim under the AFCS does not preclude any person from also making a civil claim for personal injury loss and damage, although this type of claim does require the claimant to prove that a negligent act has caused the injury. The MoD owes serving personnel the same duty of care as any civilian employer would owe to its employees.
It is important to be aware that time limits for claims for personal injury differ to those time limits for AFCS claims. Generally, a civil claim for injury made within 3 years of the date of accident/injury, unless the accident occurred on a sea going vessel, in which case there is a shorter period of time allowed of 2 years.
Claims can and should be made whilst still serving, and injured personnel do not need to wait until they have retired or been discharged from service. Making a claim does not affect your career progression or your pension entitlement as there are laws in place to protect any employee against suffering disadvantage because they have due to whistleblowing or bringing a claim.
If you are a serving member of the armed forces, or a veteran, and have suffered a serious injury due to negligence, you can get in touch with a member of our specialist Personal Injury Team by calling 01752 827085 or emailing enquiries@nash.co.uk to discuss your circumstances.
