Our military injury claims team were able to secure a compensation settlement of over £1 million for a client who developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while working in the RAF.
What happened?
Mr A* was an RAF Pilot and served for over 20 years before being medically discharged. Mr A worked as a Reaper pilot for his final years of service and, due to the significant impact from this role experienced a deterioration in mental health. He was later diagnosed with PTSD.
How did Irwin Mitchell help?
Mr A came to our specialist Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) team as Veterans UK had refused to accept the claim under this scheme and under the War Pension Scheme. Veterans UK argued that it was a complicated case with multiple factors. They said it didn't confirm, on balance of probabilities, that service was the main cause of the claimed mental health diagnosis under AFCS.
When considering the case under War Pension they merely stated that this had been considered under the AFCS scheme. This left Mr A with no scheme to be able to claim under.
Following a thorough review of the file of papers from Veterans UK, it was clear to the team that the onset of the PTSD was after 6 April 2005 and had been caused as a result of service. The team then set about to gather evidence which would confirm this.
An independent expert was asked to prepare a report to establish the date of onset of the PTSD. They were also asked to report on whether, in their professional opinion, the main cause of PTSD was service after 6 April 2005.
The expert considered all records and carried out a consultation with Mr A, and concluded that, on balance of probabilities, the main cause of PTSD was exposure to traumatic and distressing incidents because of flying the Reapers.
Having secured evidence in support of the claim an appeal was submitted. The case moved forward to tribunal, which was to establish the correct Scheme to consider the claim under and whether service was the predominant cause of the PTSD.
The Tribunal found that the PTSD was predominantly caused by service and was as a result of service after 06 April 2005.
A £1.1 million settlement
The case was then returned to Veterans UK, who then made the decision to make an award for a mental health condition at Level 6. This level of award provided a lump sum payment of £144,200, together with guaranteed income payments of 75% of his military salary tax free, index linked, for life.
He was also awarded Armed Forces Independent Payments for the rest of his life without needing further assessment. Combining this and the benefits Mr A is now eligible to claim, the lifetime value of his award is over £1.1 million. This money will give Mr A the financial security he needs to move forward with his life.
*Names not accurate to protect client identity.
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