Your Veterans need YOU ....

British Armed Forces Veterans that are incapable of paid work owing to mental and/or physical disabilities are in the process of being changed over to Employment Support Allowance from Incapacity Benefit.  Incapacity Benefit claims are being phased out.

Many of these men and women are incapable of work because of their service related disabilities.  They risked their lives to do their duty but also paid their taxes and National Insurance contributions to ensure that, should circumstances warrant it, they would be able to claim state benefits - particularly for ill health.

Incapacity Benefit (ICB) was one of these Contribution based benefits.  It could be claimed to beyond retirement age if the claimant met the criteria.  Employment Support Allowance (ESA) has replaced ICB and it is limited to a 12 month period, after which it changes to a 'Means Tested' benefit.  This means that should a Veteran in receipt of a War Disablement Pension claim Means Tested Employment Support Allowance, they will lose most of that benefit - an average of £469 every 4 weeks.

Many of the Veterans in receipt of a War Disablement Pension suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  The loss of income and being forced outside of their homes to attend meetings at Job Centres is cruel and is causing more levels of anxiety, stress and depression amongst the Veterans' community which is in turn having a further negative impact on top of their already serious mental health problems .  No Veteran in receipt of a War Disablement Pension could have successfully qualified for it without good medical evidence backing up the claim.

Veterans number less than 1% of the populace.  The sacrifices they made affect at least 99% of the population.  Please support them by signing the petition on:  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/42837 and give them some peace and dignity.  We need at least 10,000 signatures for the matter to be brought before parliament, so let's try and make democracy work for them.

If you know of a Veteran that needs some support during an assessment for their ESA claim, please refer them to: http://www.wolf-photography.com/html/PTSD/Incapacity%20.html

Thank you.

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