Fight for our veterans: 'Operation claw back compensation'
Chorus of disapproval greets launch of MoD's legal action to reduce payments made to injured soldiers
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The Government began its legal battle to cut compensation payments to two injured soldiers yesterday. If successful, the case will limit future payments to thousands of wounded service personnel.
As the proceedings began in the High Court in London, 3,500 miles away in Afghanistan, one of the soldiers, Corporal Tony Duncan, was describing his long and painful journey to serve his country once again after being shot in an ambush in Iraq.
The decision by the Ministry of Defence to take legal action against Cpl Duncan, of the Light Dragoons, and Royal Marine Matthew McWilliams provoked a maelstrom of criticism.
It came on the day that more coffins returned from Afghanistan to RAF Lyneham bearing the bodies of four more soldiers. And the MoD has released the names of two of the latest soldiers to be killed. Warrant Officer Sean Upton, 35, from Nottinghamshire, died in an explosion while on foot patrol in Helmand on Monday, and Trooper Phillip Lawrence, 22, from Birkenhead, was killed while driving an armoured vehicle.
The Independent has campaigned for the welfare of military personnel and for better support for those who have suffered fighting the country's wars.
Yesterday there was palpable anger at the High Court action among people who had gathered in Wootton Bassett, near RAF Lyneham, to pay their respects to the fallen. Tom Robinson, 76, a former Army captain from Banbury, said the Ministry's actions were "disgraceful". "Think of all the money MPs claimed on their expenses, and they're trying to cut the compensation men get for serving the country," he said. Paula Armfield, from Reading, shook her head: "Have these people no shame? Don't they realise how the rest of the country feel? We are confused and hurt by what's going on in Afghanistan. This is not the time for the Government to be so petty."
But in the High Court three judges heard government lawyers argue that the MoD's injury compensation scheme was designed to provide a set sum of money for specific injuries and should not be increased as a result of complications to those injuries.
Cpl Duncan was initially awarded £9,250 after being shot, while Marine McWilliams received £8,250 for fracturing his thigh on a training exercise, before they appealed to a tribunal for further compensation. Both men argued they had suffered a number of subsequent health problems during their treatment and these should not be regarded as separate from their original injuries. Three judges agreed with them and increased their compensation. Cpl Duncan was awarded £46,000 Marine McWilliams £28,750.
The High Court, at an earlier hearing, upheld the higher award. But yesterday Nathalie Lieven QC, representing Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth, argued that awards for injuries are made under the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces Compensation Order.
She said the Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeal Chamber had made wrong conclusions about the order and the Defence Secretary was now seeking guidance from the court.
The tribunal set out a number of principles on how the order should be interpreted. "The impact of that decision covers the large majority of cases under the order and is therefore of very great importance to the Secretary of State and to the proper decision-making in many future cases." She said: "The tribunal's approach was contrary to one of the fundamental tenets of the scheme, namely that it focused on injury and not on disablement."
Armed Forces minister Bill Rammell, on a visit to Afghanistan, said: "If what the Ministry of Defence and the Government was trying to do was to absolve ourselves of our responsibility, we wouldn't have doubled the compensation level for the most seriously injured last year. We wouldn't have made it easier for service personnel once they leave the armed forces to get training, we wouldn't have given them better access to housing and better access to healthcare."
However, the shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: "It's an essential part of the military covenant that those injured in the service of their country are dealt with in a consistent and coherent way."
In Afghanistan yesterday Cpl Duncan was back on duty in Helmand, four years after being shot in Iraq. The 27-year-old soldier with the Light Dragoons spent nearly two years working with medics from the Army rehabilitation unit, Hedley Court in Surrey. He said: "I was a bit reluctant to come out again but with the training and rehabilitation it was just a case of getting my confidence back. Don't get me wrong – I'm still a bit nervous. But you get through on the knowledge that, from the lowest trooper to the highest ranks, we can all rely on each other."
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Comments
The people of Wooton bassett are a mirror to the rest of this nation, we all feel the same, we respect and thank you, you deserve and have our country's gratitude and respect.
I cannot believe the nerve of this government! Somebody should show some moral fibre and say this AN OUTRAGE.
Why then does this government, having put service personnel in harm's way, think it's OK to reduce the compensation they are paid for their pains (literally!)? Because the government, its ministers and civil servants are without honour, that's why.
The Judiciary in this case should be looked at, they have, yet again, looked at where their bread is buttered rather than at what the just decision would be. The judges in this country are getting as bad as they were in the days of Judge Jeffreys.
Someone said Soldiers give unyealding loyalty to the country, well so should the politicians, and so, should the judiciary. The problem is that everyone is only interested in money, and if a judge has the chance of promotion and more pay then they are doing what the government wants rather than what the law demands, at all levels of the court system.
Where do we go for justice, when the system is so corrupt?
The Judiciary (3 Judges) inceased the original awards in the same manner as they would have for civilians. They are hearing a case brought by the MoD challenging their decision.
What exactly is the problem with the judiciary ; as far as I am aware in England and Wales they have although routinely appearing 100 years adrift of popular opinion been the one group effectively defending our freedoms by scuppering numerous odious pieces of legislation from successive governments which would have undermined our most basic rights as English, Welsh or Scotsmen.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/pl
Spread the word. We the people have had enough of an evil UK.
The govenment is running its armed forces programme on a shoestring - like my time on National Service in 1956-58 when we didn't have enough to eat.
Anyone considering joining the forces shouldn't be disappointed or surprised when the authorities don't look after you the way they should.
"I was a bit reluctant to come out again but with the training and rehabilitation it was just a case of getting my confidence back. Don't get me wrong? I'm still a bit nervous. But you get through on the knowledge that, from the lowest trooper to the highest ranks, we can all rely on each other."
That is on the scenes on the grounds. Let us take the other view from where the money comes from.
The politicians who are watching the XXX rated and make blue films for re-sale. The politicians whose wives are hole day in the beautiful parlors. Those who have the children who go to the Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, (paying the USA Education Departments). Those who have stolen and not paid back. The list is endless. SO how do you keep moral when we near them have lost ours?
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
Bit of a contrast don't you think between how the MPs
look after themselves, their families- office staff, researchers- and cronies and the pusillanimous treatment handed out to the people they send out to be killed and wounded ?
These same despicable pustules will all be trooping into the service to be held in memory of Harry Patch, those that are not otherwise engaged that is. Even Brown will leave his bunker for that, don't know whether lord Goebbels will bother, and they will all sit there looking solemn, some of them may even weep !
If true this is SHAMEFUL!
This is BRITAIN!
The union flag is OUR flag!
If it offends someone then they are free to leave MY country!
Maybe it's offensive because of the implication that by virtue of being British we should all support the troops in Afghanistan.
We shouldn't - they are defending neither us nor the Afghan people, and we should be demanding their immediate return.
MP's expenses are a drop in the ocean compared to the millions we are spending on attacking both the Taliban and thousands of innocent Afghan villagers. Rather than spend more on helicopter cover there, the army should limit itself to its proper role - defending Britain from attack. Being in Afghanistan just makes us more likely to be attacked.
The comparison makes me sick.
They can see alright, they just don't care, even the dimmest Labour members know they will be slaughtered come the looming General election, they are just filling their boots in the time left to them. trouble is, it is not just Labour, they are ALL at it...
'We shall remember them' will take on a whole new meaning in the coming General Election.
Ruin our country completely then it will be demoralised and easier to force into European law?
If that's what they think, they have come amiss because the country is blazing mad about the EU.
What other reason could they have to behave in such an anti-British way?
They CAN'T be that stupid.... can they?
I don't think we have/had any business going into Iraq or Afganistan, but the troops are our lads and lassies doing the job they were sent to do. THEM I support... the bloody government I could hang from the nearest lamp post.
TV now? No Way?
Your existence is noticed only if you speak about it. Okay at times some has to, has to, tell you who you are.
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton handed in a letter to 10 Downing Street in which he explains to the Prime Minister why he believes politicians are wasting soldiers' lives in an unjustified war.
In his letter, L Cpl Glenton said: "It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign policy. a tool of American foreign policy. a tool of American foreign policy. a tool of American foreign policy.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla