Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the news story on the Veterans UK section of gov.uk entitled, COVID-19: changes to Veterans UK Services, published on 19 March, what steps he is taking to ensure that Veterans UK will be able to offer their full range of services as soon as possible as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.

Veterans UK has helped over 13,000 veterans since 23 March 2020.

All regular War Pension, War Widows Pension, Armed Forces Compensation and Armed Forces Pension payments continue to be paid into nominated bank accounts.

The full range of veterans' support services, including the Veterans UK Helpline and Welfare Service, has continued to be provided throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and all requests for help have been responded to.

Veterans Welfare Service and Defence Transition Services have continued to operate remotely and provide all services except face to face meetings. Work is ongoing to assess when the face to face service might be able to begin again and will be based on Government Guidance and risk assessments for staff and veterans.

Staff have been returning in a progressive manner to the office since this became possible by implementing the Government advice and maintaining social distancing in the workplace.

Veterans UK are currently in the process of assessing outstanding workloads and developing a recovery programme to process new and existing claims and appeals as quickly as possible.