Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his target is for the average amount of time it takes between an eligible individual applying to the war pension scheme and that applicant receiving their first payment under that scheme.

The time taken to process an application for a War Pension claim is spent assessing the eligibility and entitlement of the claimant. When a War Pension claim is received it is necessary to obtain Service evidence, medical records, case notes from the claimant's General Practitioner and details of any hospital treatment, and a self-assessment form. Once all the required evidence is available, each claim is seen by a medical adviser who will take all factors into account when determining the correct decision for each individual. All cases are dealt with in strict date order. There is no delay in making payments once an eligibility and entitlement decision is reached. The target for processing war pension claims is an average clearance time of 127 working days.