The Ministry of Defence has recently announced it will be increasing the amount of personal injury compensation it awards to personnel suffering injuries while deployed under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme.
Admiral the Lord Boyce, former Former Chief of the Defence Staff, originally concluded the AFCS review in February of last year in regards to the amount of compensation the MoD would pay to personnel who filed personal injury claims.
At the time, the Labour government had agreed to act on all of the review’s reccommendations. Additionally the decision had been made to backdate the revised scheme to be inclusionary of any awards made going forward from 2005.
The changes will effectively increase all monetary awards paid to personnel for personal injuries suffered due to service, said the MoD.
Minister for Veterans, Welfare, and Defence Personnel, Andrew Robathan, stated that the new changes significantly increase awards for many personnel that have either already claimed or who will need to claim in the future. The minister stated that one crucial point to be made is that no-one could possibly lose out as a result of the new changes to the scheme.
A more detailed list of the changes include: 25 per cent average increase to all lump sum payments excluding the recently doubled top award of £570,000; a new maximum mental illness award cap of £140,000, up from its previous maximum of £48,875; a revision to the method used to award multiple injury compensation in which now all sustained injuries are addressed in the compensation award and the formation of a new advisory group comprised of independent medical experts in order to determine proper compensation awards for specific illnesses and injuries such as mental health and hearing loss.