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Colonel attacks 'sloth' of MoD payment to injured soldiers
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent29.07.09
Defence chiefs were today urged to speed up compensation for injured soldiers amid reports that nearly 2,500 military personnel are waiting for payouts.
The number of applications for compensation has soared with the deployment of British troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
MoD datum is understood to show 2,458 claims are "in hand" and many more are expected after this month's fierce fighting with the Taliban.
The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency, which processes claims, has seen a rise from 520 in 2005/06 to 5,785 in the last financial year. Just over 2,000 payments were made in 2008/09, with the cost understood to be £33.5million compared with a forecast of £17.5million.
Colonel Bob Stewart, the British commander in Bosnia and now a Conservative parliamentary candidate, said the agency moves "at the speed of a striking sloth". He added. "While they delay, the burden falls on the wounded and their families."
An MoD spokeswoman said: "This is not a backlog. We get around 700 fresh claims every month and process them as quickly as possible."
The MoD sparked uproar yesterday with a Court of Appeal move to cut compensation awarded to two soldiers. Corporal Anthony Duncan, shot in Iraq, was originally awarded £9,250 which was increased to £46,000, and Royal Marine Matthew McWilliams, who fractured his thigh in a military exercise, received £8,250 which was put up to £28,750.
Cpl Duncan, 27, is back on the frontline in Afghanistan after two years of rehabilitation.
Ministers say they are trying to ensure the biggest payouts go to the most severely injured.
The MoD has named the latest soldiers to die in Afghanistan as Warrant Officer Sean Upton, 35, from Nottinghamshire, and Trooper Phillip Lawrence, 22, from Birkenhead. The number of British personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 is 191.
