The Veterans Agency

The Veterans Agency is the single point of contact within the Ministry of Defence for providing information and advice on issues of concern to veterans and their families. It also administers the War Pensions Scheme.
FREE Helpline service: 0800 169 22 77

Overview. The following are just some of the ways that the Veterans Agency can help:

Disability Claims
Claiming War Pensions
Combat Stress
Ex-Servicemen’s Associations
Replacing Lost Medals

Veterans Initiative. The veterans initiative was launched in March 2001 when the Prime Minister appointed a Minister for Veterans. The mandate for the Minister was to take responsibility for ensuring that veterans’ issues are properly understood, appropriately prioritised and effectively addressed across Government. In March 2003 a Strategy for Veterans was published which had three main priorities. They are:

To pull together the Government’s responses to issues affecting veterans that cut across Government Departments.
To ensure that lessons learned are absorbed into the Ministry of Defence’s policies for Service personnel. And
To improve communication by publicising the assistance offered to veterans by central, devolved and local government, and by giving veterans organisations the opportunity to represent their collective and individual concerns to Government at Ministerial level.

Who is a Veteran? The term ‘veteran’ is used to mean all those who have served in the UK Armed Forces – help is also available for their widow(er)s and dependants.

If somebody has served in the UK Armed Forces, no matter how long and regardless of whether they served in war or during peacetime or were volunteers, reservists or national servicemen, they are now considered to be a veteran.

What Assistance is Available? Veterans and their families can get help on many different issues, for example health, finance, employment and accommodation. The Veterans Agency Free Helpline (0800 169 22 77) can also help with enquiries about service records, medals and military graves – these are just a few examples of the type of advice available.

The Veterans Agency also has a website – www.veteransagency.mod.uk – which has a wide range of information of interest to veterans and their families including useful links to other organisations and Government Departments.

The War Pensioners’ Welfare Service. In addition, the Veterans Agency War Pensioners’ Welfare Service gives extensive advice and support to all War Pensioners and War Widow(er)s living in the UK and Irish Republic. They also give advice and assistance to anybody who thinks they may be able to claim a war disablement/war widow(er)s’ pension.

The service is delivered via a network of welfare offices each of which has responsibility for a particular geographical area. Visits can be arranged at a pensioner’s home at a mutually convenient location.

If you would like to contact your local welfare office their ‘phone number is listed in the UK telephone directory under ‘Veterans Agency’.

Veterans Reunited Programme. ‘Heroes Return’ is the centrepiece of the New Opportunities Fund’s Veterans Reunited Programme through which National Lottery money is being provided to enable veterans and young people to commemorate the momentous events leading to the 60th anniversary of the second World War. The Fund had developed the three-pronged Veterans Reunited Programme to support commemoration by those who served, at home and overseas, during WWII and to encourage young people to link up with veterans to learn from their first-hand experiences of the war effort. The three strands of the programme are entitled:

THEIR PAST – YOUR FUTURE; HEROES RETURN; and HOME FRONT RECALL.

Their Past – Your Future. The educational project comprises a website
(www.d-dayandbeyond.org), exhibitions and publications. There will be competitions for schools, with prizes for overseas and UK-based trips to accompany veterans groups. The Fund is working with Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, to make use of the expertise within the museums sector and their knowledge of the effective use of digitised learning materials. Working closely with a number of museums, archives and libraries across the UK we will mount special projects on aspects of the war period, with the large scale collection of material including first-hand accounts by veterans, photographs and other items.

Home Front Recall. Small grants will also be available through this third strand of the programme to fund events and activities for groups in the UK. This scheme will support UK-based activities relating to veterans and all those who contributed to the war effort at home to be involved in activities such as exhibitions, the creation of learning resources, as well as get-togethers. Details of the programme will be announced in Spring 2004.

Further information on the Veterans Reunited Programme can be obtained by contacting the Veterans Agency FREE helpline on 0800 169 22 77.

Other contact points for the Veterans Agency are:

Free Minicom – 0800 169 34 58
Overseas – 44 1 253 866043
Email– help@veteransagency.gsi.gov.uk
Website - www.veteransagency.mod.uk

Address – Veterans Agency, Norcross, Blackpool FY5 3WP