Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the criteria for Armed Forces Independence Payments to include veterans with service-related mental health conditions who may be impacted by changes to Personal Independence Payment criteria.

Veterans with service-related mental health conditions may, depending on the severity of their condition, already be eligible for Armed Forces Independence Payments. Officials in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Ministry of Defence continue to work closely to ensure that where DWP benefits interface with the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and War Pension Scheme, they are taken into consideration as work on welfare reform continues.