Ahead of the National Assembly for Wales election in May 2016 we launched our Wales Manifesto outlining key actions to improve the welfare of the Armed Forces community in Wales.
The Legion made the following recommendations:
- Provide a full disregard of military compensation payments when means testing to determine how much an individual has to pay towards their care costs.
- Ensure that veterans are able to access evidence-based mental health treatment within waiting time targets set by the Welsh Government.
- Ensure that veteran amputees have access to the best levels of care that meets their clinical need, via the NHS in Wales.
- Introduce a standardised question for public bodies to ask in order to improve identification of members of the Armed Forces community and, in turn, improve knowledge and awareness.
- Take practical steps to ensure that Armed Forces families in Wales are given the support they are entitled to under the Armed Forces Covenant.
- Produce an Armed Forces Housing Pathway, outlining what members of the Armed Forces community are entitled to on a local and national level.
- Implement a Welsh Service Pupil Premium to ensure Service children in Wales have access to the support they need.
- Provide a full disregard of military compensation payments when means testing to determine how much an individual has to pay towards their care costs.
Wales Manifesto 2016
Latest updates
Disregard of military compensation payments
The Welsh Government initially announced an increased disregard from £10 a week to £25 a week from April 2016. A full disregard was implemented from April 2017.
Veterans Mental Health Treatment
Veterans NHS Wales received a funding uplift of £100,000 in November 2017 (in addition to £100k uplifts in 2014/15).
Veteran amputees
In October 2015 a letter from the Health Minister stated that Welsh Government would ‘match the quality of prosthetics that military veterans are provided with while in service’.
In October 2016 the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC) issued a Policy document ‘War veterans – enhanced prosthetics provision’ outlining commitment to ensure veterans who have lost a limb while serving in the Armed Forces should have access to modern high end prosthesis of the sort issued by the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court.
Issues remain over training of clinicians in some specialties and we are working with Welsh Government to address this.
Housing Pathway Launched
Following our recommendations, the Armed Forces Housing Pathway launched in November 2016, helping to ensure that the Armed Forces community in Wales can access accurate housing advice and support when they need it.
In addition to providing information to Service personnel who are about to transition out of the Armed Forces, as well as veterans and their families, the pathway also provides a valuable resource for frontline staff in local authorities and housing providers.
The Housing Pathway process also helped to establish a question in the Annual Rough Sleeper Count in Wales about whether the person has ever served in the Armed Forces. This aims to help provide reliable statistics on the number of homeless veterans in
Wales.
