Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to support the welfare of British veterans overseas.

The Government provides a range of different support measures for British Armed Forces veterans living overseas. Regardless of where a veteran lives, they can receive any Armed Forces Pension, War Pension, Gurkha Pension or Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments they are entitled to. In addition, healthcare support is also provided. Over 25,000 Gurkha veterans and their families live in Nepal and can access medical care provided by the Gurkha Welfare Trust. In 2019 the Government committed £25m over the next 10 years to improve this healthcare support. Elsewhere, any veteran who has received a gratuity payment due to disablement resulting from service or is in receipt of a disablement pension under the War Pension Scheme can have the costs of treatment met where there is no free healthcare for that condition available in the country they reside. In addition to this financial and healthcare support the Commonwealth Veteran’s Programme provides funding to over 7000 Commonwealth veterans in more than 30 countries to ensure they receive the equivalent of two healthy meals a day. Any Armed Forces veteran can also contact the Veterans UK helpline wherever they reside in the world.