Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons guidance on charging for social care for injured veterans differs depending on whether the injury was sustained before or after 5 April 2005.

The two different schemes that are available to support veterans who have been injured in service were established to deliver different aims which is why they are treated differently under the current social care charging rules.

The War Pension Scheme was introduced after World War 1, before the introduction of the welfare state and provides a range of allowances in addition to the basic war disablement pension. Some of these allowances are designed to specifically pay for the ongoing care costs associated with an individual’s disability and these are paid at a preferential rate, meaning that a war pensioner does not have to use their basic War Disablement Pension to meet these costs or seek other benefits to cover them. The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme however was introduced in 2005 and operates differently. Regular payments under it are designed to provide a guaranteed income for the future and are therefore currently treated differently in assessing what a person can afford to contribute to the cost of their care.

Social care has never been free and people have always been asked to make a contribution based on what they can afford. However, we know that the current system for paying for care no longer reflects the needs of today’s society which is why we are in the process of introducing the biggest reforms in over 65 years.

Officials in the Department have been working closely with the Royal British Legion to assess how a disregard may be applied for the War Pension Scheme under the social care charging rules in future.