Thread: Medical Discharge / War Pension Idea?

This is an update from another site. sorry for the delay but I forgot my Password.... :roll:

START POINT 8O 8O

Although I have made reference to this on another thread, I do not think many War Pensioners are aware of a very recent (April 2009) change to the War Pension Scheme which could cost War Pensioners over £90 per week of their War Pensions.

The change was 'sneaked' in with the annual uprating Statutory Instrument and concerns those who receive the Allowance for Lowered Standard of Occupation - ALSO (potentially all those assessed as 40% Disabled and above).

The change is that, until now, those who receive ALSO and for either their accepted condition or any other reason, fall ill and need to claim Incapacity Benefit (or the new ESA) they could keep their ALSO allowance (in a lot of cases it was even increased as ones earnings had dropped).

With the new change, those claiming ALSO from the 6th April 2009, will now lose their ALSO if they need to claim Incapacity Beneift or ESA.

As a lot of people no longer get paid when off sick (and we are talking about disabled veterans here), this means not only do they lose their income, they also lose their ALSO (which could be upto £91.44 per week for a 40% War Pensioner)

Under ESA all they will receive is £64.30 per week for at least the first 13 weeks, possibly longer (just think about it, not only does one lose ones normal income, plus upto £91.44 ALSO they will only get £64.30 per week in exchange!!).

It unfairly penalises War Pensioners, because if a civvie is awarded Compensation for an injury, in many cases they can keep that and claim ESA/IB as well!.

Personally I think it is disgusting that this change seems to have been slipped in by Statutory Instrument (ie no debate about it) or without previous consultation. There is no mention of it on the SPVA website, so a War Pensioner would only find out when their income suddenly drops.

The change is to Article 15 of the Service Pensions Order and is in the following Statutory Instrument:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/uksi_20090706_en_1

My main concern is as government have slipped this in this year, what will they 'slip in' next year to further erode War Pensions?.

The Government makes continual reference to how it has doubled the Compensation awarded under the AFCS, we are now starting to see how that is being paid for - by shafting 'old scheme' War Pensioners!.

I have written to my MP about this, can I ask others to as well?

Many thanks

TH

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I got the following feedback from the Royal British legion today. Though they aren’t able to support the issue of the ALSO, I will ask, if they will support the drive towards changing the Medical Discharge system.

:? :? :?

Regards
Hitback

Thanks for your email. I'm afraid the Legion won't be able to support the drive on ALSO. This is because we were given the chance to respond to the proposed changes last December and did not feel them to be problematic or that they would affect a significant number of veterans. Therefore we cannot now criticise the changes. The MOD's reasoning, as was communicated to us at the time, is laid out below:


Allowance for Lowered Standard of Occupation – Article 15

1. Allowance for Lowered Standard of Occupation (“ALSO”) is paid to reflect loss of earnings capacity due to the disablement caused by service. It has been long term practice to abate ALSO where the individual is also in receipt of a Service Attributable Pensions (“SAP”) under AFPS 75 and equivalent payments for other groups such as reservists, on the basis that the enhanced rate of the SAP also compensates for loss of earnings.

2. To date, this has been done as a matter of policy under a general rule in the SPO that gives the power to abate war pension payments in respect of other compensation payments. To clarify matters, we now intend to amend the SPO to include a specific rule to reflect the longstanding policy to offset ALSO against the SAP.

3. ALSO is intended as an earnings supplement for those in work, but because of the wording of the rules it is also accessible by those that are not working or are incapable of work. Unemployability Allowance (“UnSupp”) is the benefit payable to those who are incapable of work because of their war pensioned disablement. UnSupp and ALSO are not payable together, but ALSO may currently be paid to someone in receipt of the DWP equivalent of UnSupp (currently Incapacity Benefit – “IB”[1]). We therefore propose to amend the wording of the relevant article to clarify the intention the ALSO should not be awarded to a person in receipt of IB or the new Employment and Support Allowance.
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The following was sent to me the other day. (Big thanks). I wanted to give this a little bit of airing space before placing on here. Has the RBL sold out veterans and injured soldiers by accepting the loss of the ALSO for the gain of the Welfare contract? :roll: :roll:

I will be checking with the RBL about this line of thought!


Rgds

Hitback

:evil: :evil: :evil:

Please read

Hot off the press from my War Pension Committee mate is that in the next few months there are to be some major changes to the Veterans Welfare Service (formerly the War Pensioners Welfare Service).

Basically all the local offices are going to close down and there will be about 4 central 'contact points' in the UK (including one at Norcross).

When you want to contact a Welfare Manager you will have to ring one of these contact centres first. The local Welfare managers are being more or less forced to work from home (and a lot are predicting there jobs will disappear in the near to middle term future and the rumour is all welfare matters will be given to either SSAFA or the Legion - all done to save money).

It is expected the standards of Welfare work they currently offer will deteriorate sharply as many veterans will not be comfortable ringing such as Norcross (loss of confidentiality is just one issue).

The fact that our injured personnel are being medically discharged with very small compansation or pension, whilst our Political Master have a feeding frenzee on the public purse.
This is what I would say to those greedy arrogant Minisyers@

Those that have stolen from the public purse have the blood of our comrades on their hands. It was our Political Masters that kept saying ' we don't have the money to buy new armoured vehicles' or upgrade this and that.....

Rgds
Hitback

I am sorry for the delay, been away....

I got the following reply back from Nich Harveys Researcher the other day. They are the only Party to get back to me about this idea/ issue, were they would put time into addressing it... The Conservatives sign posted me off to the Labour Party, LP have still failed to follow up on my letter. Torries are sitting on the fence big style. if we think the Labour Party is failing our armed forces, then think again about how much damage the Torries will do when they get into power......!

Dear Hitback,

We are drafting things at present for defence. And I have factored this all in and I think our opinion is with you on this, more needs to be done to look after the post-service care and ease the transition. I am also talking to the British Legion about these ideas. I think you are already in contact with them?

I don’t know if you will be coming to conference but I hope you will be encouraged by what I hope will come out of it from defence. The Lib Dem Friends of the Armed Forces will be there, and we hope to have a motion setting out our policy… I can’t tell you what it involves yet but I hope it addresses some of the key issues.

I don’t know if you have seen this from Mr Clegg? Unusual for ARRSE to be quite receptive to the lib dems!

http://www.arrse.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic/t=127752.html

and I also wondered what experience you have with service voting? I am looking at this issue with Nick as I have been in contact with people who feel very disenfranchised by the postal voting system overseas. If you have any anecdotes or experience or comments on this I would be interested to hear them.

Hope you are well,

All the best,

Cxxxxxxx

Cxxxxxx Yxxxxx

Researcher to Nick Harvey MP

Lib Dem Shadow Defence Secretary

Rm 388 Portcullis House

Bridge St

London

SW1A 2LW

T: 020 7219xxxxx

F: 020 7219xxxxx

W: www.nickharveymp.com
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It's amazing the Conservatives state they are the best supporters of the armed forces. My MP Ms Nadine Dorries has been more than absent in her duties towards her constituents. Two military locations in her area....

The following is from the Lib Dems Defence team.... A big thank you to them!

Dear Hitback,

I have spoken to the British Legion about your proposals, and they have said that they are awaiting a review of the Absence Management System, the date of which is to be confirmed.


I will be keeping an eye on this, and they have said you can contact their policy team again – I actually didn’t say who had sent the policy but I think they recognised it as you! your comments will be taken into consideration.


I hope this helps


Thank you,


All the best,



Cxxx



Cxxxxx xxxx

Researcher to Nick Harvey MP

Lib Dem Shadow Defence Secretary

Rm 388 Portcullis House

Bridge St

London

SW1A 2LW

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Those that don't understand how or why we need to fight to keep our war pensions and compensation safe. Then just listen to the national news, two soldiers to fight to keep their awards.

If you don't understand what this campaign is about then please ask. Ignorance is nothing to be embarrased about but also, nothing to be proud off either!

Help fight for those that have served their Country. all you need to do is get behind this campaign and ask for changes to be made!

Thank you.

Hitback

I have emailed all the forces families federations asking them to voice their support for change to the present MD system and war pension. The current issues happening within the courts of this country, is down to the lack of support on Medical Boards for compensation and war pension %. The basic ideas of this campaign would ensure that those charities and the MoD / SPVA would be able to nterject sooner rather than later. As is the current procedure!!!

Regards

Hitback

The following has been taken from the BBC News. This issues will continue to get worse for our injured, unless we start to shout out and stand together.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8180111.stm

Please show your support for this campaign by asking your MP to support the changes stated at the start of this thread.

Regards

Hitback

Please register with the site and leave some feedback on the topics. We all know friends and family members that have served or are still serving in the forces. They might require our help in the future so please vote or leave feedback via the following link :

http://veterans-uk.ws/topic/26/How_c...ss_be_improved


Each topic has its own voting poll and area to leave a comment. This site is being monitored by the Royal British Legion and the SPVA.

Thank you once again.

Regards

Hitback

I got the following reply from the NFF. So if you are in the NAVY and you are having issues with your Medical Discharge, Go directly to the NFF and ask them to give you and your family their support.........

I would like to thank them for their reply.

Dear Hitback,

Thank you for your enquiry. The Naval Families Federation, like our counterparts representing the Army and RAF, is an independent organisation. We work with the Chain of Command, service providers and the Government, in order to make them fully aware of the consequences their policies and decisions make on the Naval Service families. To that end, a Service person or family member who feels that medical discharge policy requires amendment is welcome to bring their evidence to the NFF, where it will be dealt with in confidence and professionally. Depending on the circumstances, we would then engage with the relevant authorities, at the appropriate level, where we enjoy excellent working relations and where we hope to influence policies that impact on military family life.

If any veterans approach us we would signpost them to the SPVA and the relevant military charities, such as the RBL, RNBT etc who exist to support the veteran community.

The Service Personnel Command paper has commitments to those injured during Service. I'm sure you will have read this as part of your research, but here's a link to the SPCP on our website http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Sh...rOurPeople.htm

Have you considered setting up a Downing Street petition which may attract more interest? Might be worth investigating. Here's a link to the website where you can set up your own petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/

Good luck with your campaign.

With kind regards

The RBL new about and agreed to support the removal of the ALSO from veterans. The Governement in turn gave the RBL the welfare package: Please read the following information, a little long winded but worth it...!


Regards

Hitback


Posted by another supporter of the campaign....

Although I have made reference to this on another thread, I do not think many War Pensioners are aware of a very recent (April 2009) change to the War Pension Scheme which could cost War Pensioners over £90 per week of their War Pensions.

The change was 'sneaked' in with the annual uprating Statutory Instrument and concerns those who receive the Allowance for Lowered Standard of Occupation - ALSO (potentially all those assessed as 40% Disabled and above).

The change is that, until now, those who receive ALSO and for either their accepted condition or any other reason, fall ill and need to claim Incapacity Benefit (or the new ESA) they could keep their ALSO allowance (in a lot of cases it was even increased as ones earnings had dropped).

With the new change, those claiming ALSO from the 6th April 2009, will now lose their ALSO if they need to claim Incapacity Beneift or ESA.

As a lot of people no longer get paid when off sick (and we are talking about disabled veterans here), this means not only do they lose their income, they also lose their ALSO (which could be upto £91.44 per week for a 40% War Pensioner)
Under ESA all they will receive is £64.30 per week for at least the first 13 weeks, possibly longer (just think about it, not only does one lose ones normal income, plus upto £91.44 ALSO they will only get £64.30 per week in exchange!!).

It unfairly penalises War Pensioners, because if a civvie is awarded Compensation for an injury, in many cases they can keep that and claim ESA/IB as well!.

Personally I think it is disgusting that this change seems to have been slipped in by Statutory Instrument (ie no debate about it) or without previous consultation. There is no mention of it on the SPVA website, so a War Pensioner would only find out when their income suddenly drops.

The change is to Article 15 of the Service Pensions Order and is in the following Statutory Instrument:
www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2...90706_en_1

My main concern is as government have slipped this in this year, what will they 'slip in' next year to further erode War Pensions?.
The Government makes continual reference to how it has doubled the Compensation awarded under the AFCS, we are now starting to see how that is being paid for - by shafting 'old scheme' War Pensioners!.
I have written to my MP about this, can I ask others to as well?

Just as an update, this does so far only apply to new claims to the ALSO Allowance from 6th April 2009. However having made enquiries with the SPVA and my local War Pensions Committee, should a War Pensioner lose his/her ALSO (for example on review drop down to 30% so can no longer claim ALSO) as and when under further review they get back to 40% and reclaim ALSO, this new system will apply to them.

Also should for example one year their earnings exceed the ALSO level and ALSO stops, if they later drop in income and reclaim ALSO, again this will apply.

This is the link to new information:
http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/...6.html#2592026

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RBL reply- I have removed any names:

Thanks for your email. I'm afraid the Legion won't be able to support the drive on ALSO. This is because we were given the chance to respond to the proposed changes last December and did not feel them to be problematic or that they would affect a significant number of veterans. Therefore we cannot now criticise the changes. The MOD's reasoning, as was communicated to us at the time, is laid out below:

Allowance for Lowered Standard of Occupation – Article 15

1. Allowance for Lowered Standard of Occupation (“ALSO”) is paid to reflect loss of earnings capacity due to the disablement caused by service. It has been long term practice to abate ALSO where the individual is also in receipt of a Service Attributable Pensions (“SAP”) under AFPS 75 and equivalent payments for other groups such as reservists, on the basis that the enhanced rate of the SAP also compensates for loss of earnings.

2. To date, this has been done as a matter of policy under a general rule in the SPO that gives the power to abate war pension payments in respect of other compensation payments. To clarify matters, we now intend to amend the SPO to include a specific rule to reflect the longstanding policy to offset ALSO against the SAP.

3. ALSO is intended as an earnings supplement for those in work, but because of the wording of the rules it is also accessible by those that are not working or are incapable of work. Unemployability Allowance (“UnSupp”) is the benefit payable to those who are incapable of work because of their war pensioned disablement. UnSupp and ALSO are not payable together, but ALSO may currently be paid to someone in receipt of the DWP equivalent of UnSupp (currently Incapacity Benefit – “IB”[1]). We therefore propose to amend the wording of the relevant article to clarify the intention the ALSO should not be awarded to a person in receipt of IB or the new Employment and Support Allowance.

I hope this is clear.

xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

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I haven't had an invite yet!!!

My next message sent to the RBL:

The governments appeal against the two service personnel and their compensation is just the beginning of the problems for veterans and injured personnel. An example is my spinal injury- my left leg is effected by the nerve damage- would this be taken into account when giving compensation?
The problem is the lack of understanding of how injuries effect people's lives, and I mean the bigger picture, Family!

I have several ideas and options that could be introduced to aid not only the injured but also the cost effectiveness of the compensation and war pensions system. If at all possible in your working schedule to have a meeting to discus these areas?


Regards

Hitback
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Still no invite to discuss possible options for war pensioners...
I understand that the RBL has it's own direction and its own Aims but one needs to understand the needs of more recent veterains.....

RBL Reply....

Hi Hitback

Thanks for your message, and the one you sent more recently with the links to the website, which is looking good.

The Legion will be using the review of the Sickness Absence Management system to press for changes to the medical discharge system we think would be beneficial, which should be taking place this year. As such, I am afraid we will not be able to get involved in any other campaigning on this area. We will of course also be responding to the MOD's review of the AFCS, which has been brought forward, so will be able to communicate the concerns we first outlined in the Honour the Covenant campaign in this way.

You might be interested to know that we are currently developing a new campaign looking at the effect of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan on personnel and their families, which will include areas such as family breakdown and mental health, but will not focus exclusively on the impact of injuries.

Good luck with the current campaign and please do continue to send through developments and updates as they occur. I will be sure to check your website regularly for progress.

[align=center]THE SUPPORT FOR TROOPS & VETERANS IS IN THE HANDS OF THEIR FAMILY & FRIENDS[/align]


Once this has been launched to press and the campaign site is up and running we will be asking for petitions to be signed and supporters to write to their MP's asking them to support the campaign.

I am sure all those reading this thread understand the amount of administration and co-ordination required to get a national campaign off the ground. The cogs are turning slowly but please be ready to act as the QRF. :arrow: :wink:



Regards

Hitback

The British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) www.baff.org.uk have stated they will support the new campaign and wished us all the best.

This BAFF organisation has been working to get more members and now has free part membership to their site. Take a look at their site to gain more information.

Regards

Hitback

There is a meeting of the campaign team next week so should have more information to pass on once I return. I would like to get a campaign badge made up with the main theme being OCC, the price and number to be made would have to be discussed... If you have a design idea then please place it on this thread or PM me. Please keep it clean, this campaign is to show our unity towards fellow serving soldiers their families and veterans.

To sum this up: We stand together apply the pressure, we seperate and they escape! Again....

Regards

Hitback

The number of people contacting me about their medical boards and the treatment they have had has increased. I will always try and reply within the first day but please be aware there are times when it is not possible for me to get on line.

I found the following site today whilst scanning for information on PTSD and mental illness.

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/De...Statistics.htm
The reason their figures were so low for the reporting period was due to the lack they weren't being reported. I stated back in 2007 that servive personnel were being discharge with no Fmed24 and the veterans welfare service for mental health were not being transferred patients details.

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/infor...mental-health/
Please read the front page and then you may understand why we need this campaign?

Regards

Hitback

The meeting in London went well. There are many areas we would like to cover, however it would be impossible to work with so mant different issues. The final list will follow very soon.

Regards

Hitback

I have placed a link to the facebook campaign page but I will continue to update the site with how it's going.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Co...242674?v=info#

However the website for the campaign is not up and running as of yet but should be soon. I would like to know how to set links to this thread on facebook? any help would be great....

Thank you for the sites support on these very important issues.

Hitback

Myself and another member of the campaign have a meeting with a Shadow Defence Minister next week. I'll keep the thread updated on how we get on.

Thank you for the sires support and its users.

Regards

Hitback

The following is the new campaign topics.

One Common Cause is a unique UK alliance of veterans’ organisations, charities, campaigning groups and celebrities who are mobilising around the next General Election in 2010 to drive forward change for former and serving service personnel

By mobilising popular support across a string of events and actions, OCC will press all political parties to accept that they have obligations to help our service personnel, eradicate the difficulties that people sometimes face when transferring from the armed forces to civilian life, and to rethink some long-held assumptions. We will press political leaders to make good on their commitments by setting a binding timetable to reach these promises.

MISSION

1. Medical Discharge Boards

Service personnel attending a Medical Discharge Board deserve concise advice and guidance and MDBs need to be fair and transparent. There needs to be equal footing for service personnel so they can make qualified judgements about their future after leaving the armed forces. Service personnel need to know how Medical Discharge Boards work, who sits on them, what their role is, advice about social security benefits, their rights and reliable answers about discharge. People attending these boards should also have the right to take along a nominated colleague or friend as candidates can find the Board intimidating. We also believe that there need to be set tariffs at discharge.

In addition to the above, we believe it is essential that a member of the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA) should be present at the final Board and have read through all the medical documents for the person who is being discharged.

They should have had one full meeting with this person at least four weeks before the final board, so at the final MDB, the SPVA will have all paperwork for a war pension completed. All the Benefit forms including Incapacity, Mobility, Carers Allowance, Housing Benefits etc will have been completed and if appropriate an exemption certificate for prescriptions will have been issued, this would allow the person to get any medication they require free of charge. There should be better liason between the SPVA and outside agencies such as the NHS and specialist medical advisors such as Combat Stress or Talking2Minds so that medical treatment can be seamlessly continued after discharge.

2. Service Mortgages

Service personnel leaving the forces have to deal with the sharp reality of civvy street. Where before bills were paid, accommodation needs were found and other expenses were of no worry, finding a home can be extremely difficult with little or no prospect of getting a mortgage.
On the other hand if service personnel were given a detailed brief on the mortgage system and other investments schemes being run on their behalf, life would be much simpler. Getting a mortgage on a property would also free up military accommodation. The scheme could work in partnership with a charity or high street bank.

The scheme would have multiple benefits including:
• More armed forces personnel buying property therefore less homes would need to be provided by the MoD;
• Retention of service personnel could be linked to mortgage discounts. The longer they serve the greater the discount;
• Service personnel would be able to build up their asset base from the time they can afford a mortgage;
• Financial briefings could be given on the same day as Compulsory Drug Tests (CDT's) which occur annually. The Joint Service Housing Advice Office could carry out this task.
The cost of setting up a Tri-service bank could be taken from cuts made from the £60million the MoD paid for public relations in 2008.

3. Service personnel in prison

According to the National Association of Prison Officers there are around 8,500 former members of the Armed Forces in prison – nearly one in 10 of the prison population. Another 12,000 are on probation or parole, putting the total caught up in the justice system at 20,500. Those in prison who have been entitled to a War Pension have it stopped if they receive a custodial sentence. This can bring poverty to family members who rely on the pension which has been earned by the person in jail. It is not right to penalise a family for one person’s crime – the pension should be paid to ex-armed forces personnel who find themselves in prison. It is a sad fact that some inmates might be suffering from PTSD before getting into the criminal justice system and their illness worsens because of mis-diagnosis or lack of consultation with other agencies. This can be exacerbated by knowing that money for their family is stopped while they serve their sentence.

Westminster Meeting No1


Andrew Murrison MP Conservative Defence Team.


My first meeting was with Andrew Murrison, MP Opposition Defence Minister. Andrew was an Officer in the army so understands the pressure and the issues this new campaign is covering. I explained the documents I had prepared for the meeting and gave a copy of the bullet points I was to use throughout the meeting. I will place a copy of those bullet points on the facebook link to the side of this Blog.

We discussed in detail the medical discharge system presently being used by the armed forces. Andrew did agree that the system he remembers from his service is one sided and not on the side of the injured person.

I brought up the area of the mortgage system, which is also a part of this new campaign. I asked if the present ruling on time served in forces accommodation and buying social / housing association property could be reverted back to the old ruling, discount for these properties would include time served in SFA. There’s a need for better engagement by the JSHAO. I stated before in my last campaign that JSHAO should be on the road more. The perfect audience is when a CDT is being run on a unit.

Those that own Service Families Homes should be offering a greater discount to ex-tenants of SFA, as is the ruling for civilians in social housing / housing association properties. Time in their rented property is converted to a discount, the greater the time in it, the greater the discount.

In conclusion, the meeting went well and I hope to be seeing Andrew again in the near future. The same information was discussed with Nick Harvey MP Lib Dems, but I wasn’t going to repeat it on that entry to the thread.

Nick Harvey MP Lib Dems Defence Team.


This was the second meeting of the day with a Defence Minister. Nick Harvey, MP for Lib Dems has been very supportive towards the past campaign issue. He continues to ask questions in the House of Commons and is putting together an Early Day Motion (EDM), to get cross party support for the issues in this campaign. We also discussed a new venture by Richard Morris: Heropreneurs www.heropreneurs.co.uk the UK’s first social venture fund to help veterans and service leavers set up in business. He launched this in August and though similar to the Bright Ideas Trust www.brightideastrust.com which he co-founded with Tim Campbell in 2007, this new venture is aimed at service leavers.

Please visit the facebook site to view pictures.
Become a fan of the campaign on facebook to get the latest updates: http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Co...242674?v=info#


Regards

Hitback

I am sorry about the FB link, it's playing up at present but I will keep the site updated with any new information.

Regards
Hitback

New Update: :arrow: :arrow:

The Royal British Legion tell us that research into veterans who offend is being carried by The King's Centre for Military Health Research (KCHMR). The study is looking into who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and who are now in prison. It means that One Common Cause will stop campaigning on the area of prisoners and war pensions, at least until research has been completed and data has been analysed.

Points for Westminster Meetings 13/10/2009

1. Medical Discharge System. (On Common Cause is taking this further)

a. Understanding of the MDB. (CD to explain process), the FMed24 needs to be explained.
b. Representation at the board. (Compliant behavior).
c. Benefits forms completed and in place before discharge date. To include priority housing if required.
d. The degree % of disability given on that MDB, this will require the SPVA to be involved earlier than normal… Any redress to the % can be done prior to the discharge date, if possible!e.
e. Issue an exemption certificate for prescriptions prior to discharge date.
f. Copies of all medical documents given to the injured person and future treatment plan in place before discharge.
g. The SPVA should have an online enquires service, this would allow the veteran to engage and hopefully the SPVA will gain their trust.

2. Service Mortgage System. (Big Issue looking into this)

a. Explain system on handout.
b. Marketing could be done via the JSHAO.
c. The option to buy housing around extended family could help burden some of the problems.
d. The MoD now understands that soldiers and their family worry about their future housing needs outside the forces. This is how the Mortgage System and the rewarded fixed rate for life comes’ into play.
e. Children’s Education is also addressed as well as stability for their mental health.
f. The LSAP has too many restrictions (not able to rent out property for one) on it and is to low. £16k is more realistic.
g. Asked why time in service accommodation doesn’t count towards social housing / housing association rights to buy?

3. Service personnel in prison. (Awaiting research to be published before)

a. RBL is already leading on this but the pension of Veteran Prisoners (VP) is stop as per the present ruling. This in turn causes more harm to the VP’s family.

I have just set up a blog on this campaign, with help from a friend who understands the techno stuff. I hope users of the site will be the first followers. Thanks again..... http://onecommoncause.blogspot.com/

The Labour Government has started to listen after 11 years + in power. It's important to understand that the Conservatives failed to listen when they were in power for 16 years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/no...help#skiplinks

Is there a General Elections coming up soon:?