Armed Forces: Protective Clothing
(asked on 8th April 2025) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what change there has been in the cost of hearing loss compensation claims since the implementation of the Tactical Hearing Protection System in each financial year.
The implementation of the Tactical Hearing Protection System programme took place between April 2015 and September 2016.
The supporting table below shows the total number of initial injury/illness claims cleared under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2024 with a condition awarded for hearing loss by financial year, and the corresponding payment amounts.
The Ministry of Defence publishes annual statistics for the AFCS on the GOV.UK website. The latest publication was on 18 July 2024 using data extracted from the Compensation and Pension System (CAPS) as at 31 March 2024: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/armed-forces-compensation-scheme-statistics-index
Table 1: Total initial injury/illness claims cleared under the AFCS with a condition awarded for hearing loss by financial year1, numbers and £2,3
1 April 2013 - 31 March 2024
Financial Year | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
Total Awarded | 438 | 301 | 292 | 186 | 158 | 102 | 71 | 54 | 60 | 119 | 117 |
Lump Sum Amounts | £3,293,900 | £2,026,000 | £2,102,900 | £1,378,000 | £1,130,900 | £835,300 | £707,300 | £362,700 | £380,800 | £763,900 | £752,600 |
Guaranteed Income Payments | £2,233,800 | £906,900 | £773,300 | £768,600 | £391,300 | £269,300 | £422,900 | £58,600 | £0 | £17,100 | £7,300 |
Source: Compensation and Pension System (CAPS), Veterans UK Finance Team
- By financial year which the initial claim was cleared. If a claim had subsequent activity (a reconsideration, appeal and/or review) which led to an increase in awarded tariff, the claim is presented in the financial year the initial claim was cleared.
- Expenditure amounts awarded have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Includes accrued expenditure for claims awarded but were still to be processed and paid.
- Multiple injuries/illnesses can be awarded under one claim. Lump sum compensation: only the lump sum amount awarded under the Senses tariff of injury table within the claim for a hearing loss related tariff. Guaranteed Income Payment (GIP): total GIP amount paid, to date, for the whole awarded claim if hearing loss was the highest awarded condition; this is due to the methodology behind GIP calculations.