Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2020 to Question 51724 on the Veterans UK Helpline, how many calls to that telephone service were recorded in each month of 2020.
From 1 January 2020 to 8 June 2020, I can confirm the following number of telephone calls were recorded by the Veterans UK Helpline:
Month | Calls Recorded by the Veterans UK Helpline |
January 2020 | 9,733 |
February 2020 | 9,114 |
March 2020 (up to 22 March) | 7,595 |
Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, on 23 March 2020 the Veterans UK helpline was adapted to an email-only service. A partial telephony service resumed on 3 June 2020 and has recorded 459 calls up to 8 June 2020.
The Veterans UK helpline operators have responded to all 9,000 enquiries received by email since the email-only service was introduced on 23 March. This service remains in place alongside the reduced telephony service. All demand for help and assistance is being met.