Wounded soldiers up to £3,000 worse off a year after secret benefits axe

By Daniel Bates and Matthew Hickley
Last updated at 2:44 AM on 26th August 2009


Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth has already tried to reduce compensation payments to wounded troops

Badly wounded soldiers have had their disability benefits secretly slashed by as much as half by penny-pinching bosses at the Ministry of Defence.

Troops whose working lives are cut short after injuries sustained while fighting will no longer be paid a special £57-a-week allowance.

The move came after the MoD quietly dropped the benefit for new claimants who are too disabled to work.

It means hundreds of troops who have been injured in Afghanistan and in future conflicts will be £3,000-a-year worse off.

Around 12,000 veterans receive the allowance. But from April the rules have been changed so that those whose injuries leave them unable to work are not entitled to the benefit.

Critics called the cuts 'morally indefensible' when combat casualty rates are at a record high, and accused ministers of trying to save cash through 'invisible' cuts targeting hard-up wounded veterans.

British forces in Afghanistan suffered their worst month to date in July, with 22 soldiers killed and 94 wounded in battle.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth already faces fierce criticism for his Appeal Court battle to try to reduce compensation payments to severely wounded troops.

And figures show 279 injured troops and veterans are having to fight legal appeals in the hope of more generous compensation settlements.

The benefit payments at the centre of the latest row are known as the Allowance for Lower Standard of Occupation (ALSO).

The cash helps them pay for basic essentials and stay above the poverty line as they struggle to cope with psychiatric as well as physical wounds.

But with the defence budget in crisis and the number of wounded soldiers rising fast, ministers have decided that anyone injured after April this year and unable to work will be barred from applying.

Those who can work will still receive ALSO as a 'top-up' to their pay and other benefits, but those too severly injured to work are now expected to get by on incapacity benefit. Growing numbers of service personnel are coming back from Afghanistan so badly injured that they are unable to return to work in any capacity.

Savings from the cuts are likely to be modest. ALSO costs the MoD around £34million a year - barely one fiftieth of the £1.6billion paid in benefits to heroin and crack cocaine addicts each year.

Campaigners have reacted with fury, with the Royal British Legion writing to Armed Forces minister Bill Rammell to demand an explanation-Lord Guthrie, former Chief of the Defence Staff, condemned the latest benefits cuts as ' thoroughly mean', adding: 'It's a matter of doing anything to save money.'

Shaun Rusling, chairman of the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, said: 'It is morally indefensible to do this in time of war.

'If we are going to send our troops to war we must be prepared to give them the best medical care if they are wounded and the most generous pension and benefits provision possible.'

Diane Dernie, mother of injured Paratrooper Ben Parkinson who became the face of the Daily Mail's campaign for more generous compensation for wounded soldiers, said many desperately needed the modest ALSO payments to get by.

The MoD was unable to say why the ALSO payments were reduced, or which minister was responsible.

A spokesman said: 'The decision to change the eligibility criteria for ALSO was taken after a wide consultation, including with veterans' charities. Anyone who is unhappy with the outcome of a claim has the right to appeal.'



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