More than £130m paid out to Armed Forces personnel over injury or illness

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is paying out 12.7% more to personnel due to injury or illness as part of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, new figures show.

The no-fault scheme financially compensates for injuries, illness and death caused by UK military service and the MOD released annual, pre-audit figures on the scheme.

These showed the amount of money paid out as increased from £116.5m to £131.3m – an increase of £14.8m.

• Service personnel left with 'moral injury' after Afghanistan withdrawal
• MOD to cover personal life and injury insurance bill up to £150m for troops deployed on operations
• Armed Forces Compensation Scheme simply not fit for purpose and needs overhauling

Figures from the latest financial year showed more than £131m was awarded to those claiming their injury or illnesses were caused or made worse by their service.

From 2023 to 2024, there were 4,296 registered injury or illness claims – 31% of these rejected, but 57% awarded – seeing a total payout of more than £131.3m, prior to account audits.

11% were accepted but received no award as the harm was not deemed serious enough.

The number of injury or illness claims has been increasing since 2021, returning to pre-Covid levels.

Since the scheme began in April 2005, 72% of claimants have been Army regulars and, in the same period and relating to injury/illness claimants, 87% were said to be under 40 – with 91% male.

Of all awarded conditions, musculoskeletal disorders have made up 47% since 2005, while mental disorders made up 7%.

Injury, wounds and scarring cases also made up 12% of the awarded conditions, according to the statistics.

In total, more than 55,000 people have been awarded compensation for injury or illness, more than 32,000 of those having deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan prior to their claim.

In the latest year, figures show it's taken an average of 115 working days to clear this type of claim.