Veterans UK

Rachel Hopkins Excerpts

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Westminster Hall

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Gill Furniss) on securing and leading this important debate during Armed Forces Week, reflecting our deep obligation to our armed forces, veterans and their families.

Labour is deeply proud of our armed forces personnel, veterans and their families—the whole community—for the contribution they make to our country. From the response to the invasion of Ukraine to deployments during the covid-19 pandemic, the armed forces are essential to our country’s safety and security. We thank them for all that they do.

Like others, I have had the honour of taking part in the armed forces parliamentary scheme, to gain greater insight and understanding of service and service life. The long-standing connection between Labour and the armed forces community is built on our respect for their public service, and recognition of their sacrifices. We recognise that it is people from our communities who serve—our family, friends and neighbours—and we have a moral duty to ensure that they can access the services they deserve. Theirs is the ultimate public service.

It has been excellent to see Labour MPs this week standing up for the armed forces community in Parliament, with further celebratory events over the following days, many led by local councillors and councils, as referred to. As shadow Veterans Minister, it has been a pleasure to join Labour’s Veterans’ Voice events across the country, hosted by Labour MPs, prospective parliamentary candidates and councillors. Our Veterans’ Voice nationwide listening campaign will help ensure that our plans for the next general election reflect the real-life experiences of veterans and their families.

What has been clear from all the events so far is that the Conservative Government are failing to make the UK the best place in the world to be a veteran. Veterans I have met from across the UK have told me how they feel overlooked and let down after 13 years of a Conservative Government. From veterans who need a hand up, to veterans who are doing perfectly well in life but expect more respect for their service, the whole community deserves better. Veterans UK is responsible for delivering that but, as we have heard from Members today, including the hon. Member for Midlothian (Owen Thompson), it is falling short of what is expected.

The previous Labour Government were proud to set up the armed forces compensation scheme, to ensure that serving personnel, veterans and their family members can receive support following injury, illness or death. On almost every visit I have been on, a veteran or a family member has explained the difficulties and frustrations with the scheme. There seems to be no plan to address the falling acceptance rates for veterans seeking compensation through the scheme, as successful claims have dropped from 65% to 47% since 2011-12, and rejections have risen from 24% to 41%. I cannot comment on the specifics of individual cases, but we know that there are many problems with the process, as the hon. Member for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond) highlighted.

The headline findings of the current quinquennial review of the armed forces compensation scheme state that

“the process is overly burdensome and even distressing for the claimant due to unreasonable timeframes and a lack of transparency.”

That situation is creating mistrust in the armed forces community, because it is perceived that there is little procedural fairness and that decision making is inconsistent. We need immediate action from the Government to improve that. On 30 January, the Minister told the House that the quinquennial review of the armed forces compensation scheme would be published “in the spring”, yet we are now into summer and still have no report. Will the Minister confirm when the final report will be published in full? Further delay only further fails our veterans.

The cost of living crisis has had an enormous impact on our armed forces community, as it has on the rest of society, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) for setting that out. The Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes have increased the number of grants awarded to veterans and their families to support them with rises in basic living costs, such as food and energy, and over the past year the number of veterans relying on universal credit has also increased by 50%. That means that over 50,000 veterans are now receiving universal credit. People are unable to cover their bills, and it is simply not good enough for the Government to ignore the situation. Will the Minister explain what new steps the Government will take to support veterans into well-paid work, and will he outline how his Department is working with service charities to ensure that veterans are not forced into poverty? These are our heroes; the very least they deserve is the dignity of a secure, well-paid job that enables them to cover their basic costs.

The Government rightly recognise the gaps in Government support, and we welcome the independent review of UK Government welfare services that is being jointly conducted by the Ministry of Defence and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs. It is long overdue, but for the review to be a success the Government must recognise that they have been responsible for the deterioration of veterans services over the past 13 years. From the slow roll-out of ID cards that veterans need to access services to missing important mental health waiting time targets, across the board the Government have not delivered the support that veterans deserve and were promised. The review must be shaped by veterans’ experiences.

On 13 March, the Minister told the House that the welfare review would be “completed within three months”, yet the following week the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs said it would be “three to six months.” I subsequently checked the review’s terms of reference, which state:

“Full and final recommendations will be made by Autumn 2023.”

I too would therefore like to nudge the Minister—perhaps a bit more firmly—to confirm on what date the review outcome will be published. Will he also outline what resources his Department and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs have allocated to the implementation of the review’s recommendations? The review must not just shuffle around the deckchairs; veterans and their families deserve better than the status quo. I look forward to hearing further detail from the Minister.

In conclusion, the Labour party is ready to step up to the challenge. In government, we will fully incorporate the armed forces covenant into law, thereby delivering on the promise to those who serve or have served in the armed forces and their families. They will receive fair treatment. Visa fees will be scrapped for non-UK veterans and their dependants if they have served four years or more. We will also boost specialist support and bring down waiting times for veterans’ mental health services as part of our £1 billion commitment to ensure that everyone receives treatment within a month. Veterans are at the heart of Labour’s plan for Government.