Social Security Benefits: Veterans

(asked on 22nd March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that departmental staff assessing applications for veteran benefits are aware of the consequences of both mental and physical injury and illness.


Answered by
David Rutley Portrait
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 19th April 2022

DWP itself does not provide any exclusively "veterans benefits". Instead disabled veterans have access to the usual range of extra cost disability benefits (such as Personal Independence Payment) and means tested benefits (such as Universal Credit). These benefits are designed to help with the costs of living and the additional costs that disabled people might face because of their disability. DWP staff receive training to help them understand the circumstances of veterans and the challenges they may face, including with their physical or mental health, with our Armed Forces Champions having a particular responsibility to build capability and awareness within DWP. More generally DWP has put in place a number of specific provisions to support veterans, ranging from voluntary early entry to the Work and Health Programme to using Service Medical Board evidence to help assess claims where we can.

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