MoD civil servant gets more for back strain than soldiers disabled in Iraq and Afghanistan

You really, really couldn't make it up. A Ministry of Defence civil servant who suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and depression received £217,000 in compensation last year. Another MoD civil servant received £202,000 for “back strain due to lifting a printer". Meanwhile a soldier who suffered third degree burns over 70 per cent of his body in a Taliban rocket attack in Afghanistan is awarded £98,000. Another who lost the use of a leg and a hand as well as suffering serious internal injuries when he was mortared in Iraq get £57,580. These are not figures made up by the media, they come from the 2006/2007 annual report of the MoD Directorate of Safety and Claims. Unbelievable, truly unbelievable.

Private Jamie Cooper, from Bristol, who at 18 became the youngest British soldier to be wounded in Iraq.
Cooper, a member of the Royal Green Jackets was hit twice by mortar rounds in an attack on his base in Basra in November 2006. He lost the use of one leg and a hand as well as suffering internal injuries. That civil servant with back strain after lifting a printer is getting more than three times as much as he did.The man with the back strain is getting more than twice the £98,837.50 L/Cpl Martyn Compton was originally awarded for the horrific burns he suffered in a Taliban rocket attack. A review led to Compton's payment being increased to £163,000. Still nowhere near the £202,000 for back strain or the £217,000 for depression that MoD civil servants get.

Phil Cooper, Jamie’s father said: “It’s laughable really isn’t it? You’ve got guys out there on the frontline really risking their lives and getting horribly wounded doing it and then you’ve got faceless bureaucrats getting far more for straining their back lifting a printer. It’s not just about Jamie. There are all those other Tommy Atkins in the same position. I’d have said I can’t believe it but I can. It doesn’t surprise me anymore, it really doesn’t. I’m just so disillusioned by it all. It is despicable.”

The review into the armed forces compensation scheme followed widespread anger over the £152,000 awarded to Lance-Bombardier Ben Parkinson, who lost both legs and the use of an arm. His case was compared to the £484,000 paid to an RAF administrator awarded £484,000 by the courts after she developed RSI from typing. But the changes introduced by the review left only two per cent of those awarded compensation in its three years in operation receiving any extra money.

L/Cpl Tom Birch, a Royal Marine commando, was one of that two per cent. He received £88,000 after suffering serious brain and abdominal injuries when his Land Rover went over a cliff in Afghanistan. Birch, who was just 18 at the time and is from Heanor, Derbyshire, can no longer speak or walk properly and has severe memory problems. His money was raised to £100,000, not even half that given to the man with the bad back. Of those whose cases were reviewed, only Parkinson will get the maximum £285,000 the troops can receive. The worst disabled also receive a monthly payment but it is a percentage of the very low pay they receive as junior soldiers and makes no allowance for what their future income might have been. Small wonder that the Royal British Legion has criticised the armed forces compensation scheme as "disgraceful" and senior commanders advise their soldiers to take out their own insurance.

There is simply no justification whatsoever for this. We send young men to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we want to put their lives and futures in danger, the very least we should do is make sure they are adequately compensated when they lives are ruined.

Comments

[William29]

If only I had the gift to put into words the contempt and digust I have for those who are abusing this still great country that is ours. I have the greatest respect for the British Legion. However, now they must stop fighting in a defence position, learn from the masters of spin, use the dreaded PR people and force themselves into the news and media. Most if not all that I served with, were men that had that most precious of values, trust in each other, the regimental family, and the chain of command. I accept that many soldiers did not have the latest faddish O or A level, but none of them were fools ! So where are we now, politicians with notions of world power, imposing their form of democracy on peoples who have their own history and values. Whilst treating those most loyal and trusting servicemen and women with contempt. Finally, that old soldier - swinging the lantern - as tales of past heroism flow with the ale, if only I could say I was half as good a soldier as these lads and lasses fighting in a forlorn war. Time marches on, tourists now (righlty) walk over Tumbledown where some of my closest friends marched into regimental history.

[Chuck Unsworth]

To me it is 'believable, simply believable'. It's profoundly disturbing. There's a fundamental question of morality here.

I was appalled at the laissez faire attitude shown by Minister Bob Ainsworth when asked to comment on L/Cpl Martyn Compton's injuries and compensation. A Defence Minister saying that the pitiful sum for compensation (determined by others, of course) was, any way, supplemented by the good Corporal's pension!

Frankly I cannot understand why our soldiers do not resign en masse.

[James Arnot]

In response to Chuck Unsworth's statement - "Frankly I cannot understand why our soldiers do not resign en masse."
In the case of Officers they are. I'm amazed that someone hasn't used FOI to find out the true figures rather than the appalling spin, lies and statistics that the Ministry of Propaganda....sorry Defence gives out. Having just left the Army after serving 11 years I can promise you that resignations of Captains and Majors is going to present a huge problem to the operational effectiveness of the Army very soon.

[Gordon Wisbech]

The Secretary of State, the Junior Minsters, the Permanent Secretaries and Undersecretaries at the MoD are all hollow suits incapable of empathy let alone compassion. It is the uniformed brass who pull the strings. While it might seem unconscionable that senior servicemen would treat the ordinary frontline soldiers so abominably, this has been policy from day one in every conflict since the Napoleonic times or even the Battle of Blenheim.

[William29]

Dear Gordon:

I cannot accept what you say, two commanders spring to mind, Alanbrook and Montgomery, who helped with our allies to win the war against facism, and against political ineptitude, interference from a well meaning but deluded Winston who thought of everything as a cavalry charge. Read Master of the Battlefield (Nigel Hamilton) Montgomery - mistreating those who served under him is nonsense, he was often accused of being cautious, others do not agree, however, he had seen and himself been seriously wounded in the slaughter of the first world war. There are many soldiers still alive today because of the refusal of senior commanders to commit to fanciful adventures dreamt up by politicians in times of war. On several occasions Montgomery was due to be sacked for refusal to commit, the patronage of Alanbrooke saved him.