Below is an updated link to a GOV.UK web page which provides, for those currently serving, the online armed forces pension calculator, and a downloadable pension forecast request (form 12) -—
and a downloadable pension forecast form (form 14) for those who have left the armed forces:
Geoff Hoon 'denied Iraq soldiers equipment that could have saved lives''
Tories demand that Chilcot inquiry establishes whether then defence secretary delayed ordering body armour.
The government was accused last night of denying British soldiers vital equipment that could have saved their lives in Iraq as a bitter party political row threatened to engulf the Chilcot inquiry into the war.
Two days before Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary, prepares to give evidence to the inquiry, the Conservatives are demanding that it establish the truth behind claims that Hoon delayed ordering enhanced body armour shortly before the invasion because ministers did not want to alert the public to their preparations and stoke opposition to war.
Injured Armed Forces veterans will be guaranteed priority NHS care for life under new plans unveiled by ministers.
By Aislinn Laing
Published: 4:00PM GMT 11 Jan 2010
The initiative will start with a tailored healthcare plan drawn up before each serviceman or woman leaves the forces.
GPs and hospital staff will be reminded of their duty to provide priority care to those veterans and health authorities will be expected each to nominate a director to ensure they do.
Six pilot projects which saw NHS clinical psychologists appointed to work exclusively with veterans will be rolled out across the country, and six new mental health nurses from the military charity Combat Stress will be appointed in selected NHS trusts to link veterans with the right medical help.
The NHS will also match Defence Medical Services spending on prosthetic limbs for those veterans who need replacements in later life.
NHS doctors who are members of the reserve forces are reporting difficulty obtaining time off for their reserve forces training.
NHS Trusts have also been showing increasing reluctance to recruit staff who are members of the armed forces.
These reports relate to doctors. BAFF is also prepared to publicise any similar problems for other professional NHS staff who are members of the reserve forces.
It seemed unlikely that it could be happening again. But it was......
(Independent, 9 November) Ministers are accused of a "scandalous failure" to help Britain's servicemen and women exercise their democratic right to vote in the next general election after it emerged that more than 60,000 are still unregistered – one-third of the regular armed forces.
Electoral participation by armed forces personnel has again been raised in parliament. The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno asked the Government what proposals they have to enable British military and other personnel serving overseas to vote in any elections in 2010.
From the last page of the report of the independent review into the broader issues surrounding the loss of the RAF Nimrod MR2 Aircraft XV230 in Afghanistan in 2006 -
Chapter 24 of the Nimrod Review report identifies a number of current weaknesses in the area of personnel in the MOD which have an impact on the effectiveness of the MOD Airworthiness regime.
“Safety is delivered by people, not paper” (Andrew Macfarlane, Nuclear Regulator, 2008)
“It takes a whole community to ensure that we get [Operational Safety, Suitability and
Effectiveness].” (A Fleet Chief Engineer, US Air Force, 2008)
Haddon-Cave makes Recommendations for a New Personnel Strategy. From page 560 of the report:
Summary
1. People deliver Airworthiness.
2. There are currently weaknesses in the area of personnel in the MOD, namely:
(1) Undervaluing and dilution of engineers and engineering skills.
(2) Engineers are not required to have professional status.
(3) Decline in the ability of the MOD to act as an “intelligent customer”.
(4) Turf wars and inter-service rivalries for jobs and roles.
(5) Short term two-year postings.
(6) Constant re-naming of posts.
(7) ‘Double-hatting’ and ‘gapping’.
(8) Lack of trained Safety Engineers.
(9) Selfishness, rewards and promotion for ‘change’.
(10) Shortage of manpower and skills fade.
3. There should be a New Personnel Strategy to address each of these weaknesses.
The Report of the Nimrod Review is now available online.
- The Nimrod Review: an independent review into the broader issues surrounding the loss of the RAF Nimrod MR2 aircraft XV230 in Afghanistan in 2006 report (Full report - PDF 4.62MB - download may be slow due to amount of interest)
- The Nimrod Review official website
The Defence Force Welfare Association (DFWA) is the representative group primarily concerned with the welfare, individual rights and financial interests of former members of the defence force (in both peace and war).
A Conservative Shadow Minister asked the Government if it will review the prohibition on insulin-dependent diabetics joining the armed forces. The Minister's reply indicated that there were no plans to review the policy whereby the services do not recruit or commission personnel with existing medical conditions which require regular access to medication, such as diabetes. The single services do, however manage individuals who develop diabetes during their service careers "according to their specific operational requirements" and "each case will be considered on an individual basis":
(Source: Lib Dem press release 22 May 2006) As the Armed Forces Bill has its final reading in the House of Commons, the Liberal Democrats have tabled amendments to achieve effective representation for British servicemen and women:
British Armed Forces Federation spokesman Adrian Weale said: “You can’t treat service personnel like children. They are in the front-line of the war against terrorism but the MoD doesn’t trust them to behave responsibly online.”
Below is the text of BAFF's evidence as submitted to the House of Commons Defence Committee Inquiry in 2007-8 into medical care for armed forces personnel and their familes.
The pre-1975 service pensions grievance relates to British ex-servicemen and women who served as regular "Other Ranks", and left the armed forces before April 1975 without completing a 22-year 'full career'. These veterans have no armed forces pension for their years of service in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army or Royal Air Force. The issue also affects the widows or widowers of pre-1975 service personnel.
We understand the strength of feeling about this so-called "legacy" pension issue. Our original lead on this matter is married to a veteran with no pension for 7 years' regular army service in late 60s / early 70s.
If you are absent from the armed forces without leave, the following links may be helpful:
Do British armed forces personnel have any human rights while on operations?
From a story in the Inverness Courier, March 2008:
Inverness lawyer Douglas Young dedicated more than 30 years of his life to the Territorial Army, serving in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. In 2006 he helped set up the British Armed Forces Federation to represent rank and file soldiers as well as officers. Calum Macleod talks to a man much in demand... "Nobody should think [BAFF] is about battles stopping for tea-breaks or anything like that.......
The federation could not strike or change the government's strategic policy. Lord Garden said: "It could not say, 'we will not go to Iraq' but it could say, 'we would like enough body armour'." From The Guardian, 26 January 2006: