Official Statistics

Location of UK armed forces pension and compensation recipients as at 31 March 2023

Published 31 August 2023

© Crown copyright 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/location-of-armed-forces-pension-and-compensation-recipients-2023/location-of-uk-armed-forces-pension-and-compensation-recipients-as-at-31-march-2023

This annual Statistical Bulletin provides summary statistics on the location of UK armed forces veterans in receipt of an occupational pension, and service personnel and veterans awarded compensation for service-attributable injury/illness, as at 31 March 2023. Summary statistics are presented by country with lower-level geographical breakdowns also presented for those in the UK.

Key Points

As at 31 March 2023:

478,701 current and former UK service personnel were in receipt of a pension or compensation
449,119 veterans were in receipt of a pension or compensation
Over 8 in 10 pension and compensation recipients were identified as residing in the UK
  Of these UK recipients, over 8 in 10 were identified as residing in England
Over one-third UK recipients were identified as residing in the South West or South East of England
More than half of overseas compensation and pension recipients were identified as residing in Germany (25%), Australia (23%) or Canada (8%)

Figure 1: UK armed forces pension and compensation recipients [note1], by UK country, percentages [note 2]

As at 31 March 2023

Sources: Compensation and Pension System (CAPS); War Pension Computer System (WPCS)

Note 1. ‘Pension recipients’ include personnel in receipt of their pension under AFPS 75 and AFPS 05; excludes those in receipt of their pension under AFPS 15.

Note 2. Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

Note 3. ‘Other UK’ recipients include Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

Note 4. ‘Unknown’ recipients include pension and compensation recipients with no valid postcode recorded and recipients with a UK address but no valid postcode.

Note 5. Table 1 Supplementary Tables

Responsible statistician: Deputy Head of Defence Statistics Health

Email: Analysis-Health-PQ-FOI@mod.gov.uk

Further information/mailing list: Analysis-Health-PQ-FOI@mod.gov.uk

Background quality report: Background quality report

Would you like to be added to our contact list, so that we can inform you about updates to these statistics and consult you if we are thinking of making changes? You can subscribe to updates by emailing Analysis-Publications@mod.gov.uk

Other bulletins in this series and the supplementary tables containing all data presented in this publication can be found on the GOV.UK website .

Introduction

This Statistical Bulletin presents summary information on the number and location of recipients of an armed forces pension and/or compensation as at 31 March 2023, by country, UK region and UK health authority.

The supplementary tables present the underlying data, plus further summary data by UK Parliamentary Constituency and Postcode.

Reference to pension and compensation recipients in this report refers to;

Pension Recipients: UK armed forces veterans in receipt of an occupational pension under one of the following Armed Forces Pension Schemes: AFPS 75 or APFS 05. This report does not include those in receipt of AFPS 15, please see Background Quality Report for more details.

Compensation Recipients:

  • War Pension Scheme (WPS) Recipients: UK veterans, war widows / widowers and other pensioners in receipt of compensation for injury, ill health and death as a result of service in the UK armed forces prior to 6 April 2005.

  • Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) Recipients: UK veterans and serving personnel who have been awarded compensation for injury and ill health as a result of service in the UK armed forces on or after 6 April 2005. This report does not include dependants awarded compensation under the AFCS for service-attributable death.

These statistics were developed following an increasingly high burden of external requests for information, specifically from UK government authorities and UK health authorities seeking estimates of serving and ex-serving personnel residing within their catchment area that may be more likely to require access to local health and social care services. The increase in such requests was primarily driven by the Armed Forces Covenant, published in May 2011, which sets out the moral obligation of the nation to members of the UK armed forces, veterans and their families.

Findings in Section 3 of this statistical bulletin present the location of all recipients of a pension and/or compensation by country. Due to increased interest in veterans, findings in Sections 4 and 5 provide a summary of the location of veterans only, by lower geographical levels and UK health authority.

Summary statistics for all recipients by lower geographical levels and UK health authority can be found in the supplementary tables.

Spatial data have been converted from Ordnance Survey, Office for National Statistics, NI Direct and Scottish Government SpatialData © Crown copyright and database right [2014] unless otherwise stated. Ordnance Survey data covered by OS OpenData Licence.

Defence Statistics produces annual National Statistics on the War Pension Scheme (WPS) and the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS):

  • War Pension Scheme (WPS). This is a no-fault scheme which financially compensates for injury/illness and death caused by service from the start of the First World War in 1914 until 5 April 2005.

  • Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS). This scheme considers claims for compensation for injury, illness or death caused by service on or after 6 April 2005.

Other related MOD and Other Government Departments Official Statistics:

Location by Country

As at 31 March 2023, there were 478,701 recipients of a pension and/or compensation (Table 1). Further information on the numbers of recipients under each scheme (AFPS, WPS and AFCS) are presented in the supplementary tables.

As at 31 March 2023, over two-thirds (71%) of pension and compensation recipients were identified as having a valid postal address in England.

Table 1: UK armed forces pension and compensation recipients, by UK country, numbers and percentages

As at 31 March 2023

Country All Percentage of Total Of which veterans Percentage of Total
All 478,701   449,119  
UK 411,727 86% 384,066 86%
England 339,860 71% 316,257 70%
Wales 21,278 4% 20,048 4%
Scotland 36,705 8% 34,825 8%
N Ireland 10,123 2% 9,445 2%
Other UK [note 1] 976 <1% 933 <1%
UK Unknown [note 2] 2,785 <1% 2,558 <1%
Overseas 7,344 2% 5,790 1%
Unknown [note 3] 59,630 12% 59,263 12%

Sources: Compensation and Pension System (CAPS); War Pension Computer System (WPCS)

Note 1. ‘Other UK’ includes Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

Note 2. ‘UK Unknown’ includes pension and compensation recipients with a UK region recorded but with no valid postcode.

Note 3. ‘Unknown’ includes pension and compensation recipients with no valid address recorded.

Overseas Recipients

As at 31 March 2023, there were 7,344 pension and compensation recipients identified as having an overseas postal address. Of these;

  • One-Quarter (25%) were residing in Germany.

  • Almost one-quarter (23%) were residing in Australia.

  • Almost one in ten (8%) were residing in Canada.

Figure 2: Heat map of the location of recipients of UK armed forces pension and/or compensation by country, numbers

As at 31 March 2023

Spatial data sourced from ArcGIS OpenData. Data covered by Open Data Commons Licence.

Sources: Compensation and Pension System (CAPS); War Pension Computer System (WPCS)

Note 1. Table 2 Supplementary Tables

Veteran Location by UK Region

Veteran UK Recipients

As at 31 March 2023, there were 384,066 veteran pension and compensation recipients identified as residing in the UK, of which over one-third (35%) were residing in the South East and South West of England. Lower-level breakdowns of regional data can be found in the supplementary tables.

Figure 3: Heat map of the location of veteran recipients of UK armed forces pension and/or compensation by UK region, numbers

As at 31 March 2023

Sources: Compensation and Pension System (CAPS); War Pension Computer System (WPCS)

Note 1. ‘Shetland’ is included within Scotland Region.

Note 2. Table 3 Supplementary Tables

Note 1. Table 3 Supplementary Tables

South West Region

A third (34%) of veteran recipients residing in the South West were in the Devon and Wiltshire areas. This reflects the higher presence of military barracks and bases within these areas, compared to others within the region.

South East Region

Over one-third (36%) of veteran recipients residing in the South East were in the county of Hampshire. This was driven by the numbers of veterans in Gosport and Fareham which, along with the numbers seen in Portsmouth, reflects the higher presence of naval bases within these areas, compared to others within the region.

The high presence of veterans in the South East and South West of England were unsurprising as it is understood that personnel are likely to remain living in the same area after leaving the services.

Sources: Compensation and Pension System (CAPS); War Pension Computer System (WPCS)

Veteran Location by UK Health Authority

This section presents information on veteran recipients located across the UK, which extends into multiple health authorities beyond the National Health Service.

Figure 5: Heat map of the location of veteran recipients of UK armed forces pension and/or compensation in the UK, by Local Health Authority [note 1], numbers

As at 31 March 2023

Sources: Compensation and Pension System (CAPS); War Pension Computer System (WPCS)

Note 1. Local Health Authority boundaries as at 1 April 2023

Note 2. Table 4 Supplementary Tables

As at 31 March 2023:

  • Over 40% of veteran recipients in England were identified as residing in the South West (23%) and South East (20%) NHS Regions.

  • Over half of veteran recipients within Northern Ireland were identified as residing within the Northern (29%) and South Eastern (24%) Health and Social Care Trusts.

  • One-fifth (22%) of veteran recipients in Scotland were identified as residing within the Fife and Moray Health Integration Authorities.

  • Over a quarter (26%) of veteran recipients in Wales were identified as residing in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board jurisdiction.

Sources: Compensation and Pension System (CAPS); War Pension Computer System (WPCS)

Data, Definitions and Methods

This section provides a brief summary of the methodology and data sources; more detailed information is available in the Background Quality Report for this bulletin.

Data Sources

Occupational pension data and Armed Forces Compensation data are held on the Compensation and Pension System (CAPS). War Pension Scheme data are held on the War Pension Computer System (WPCS). Defence Business Services (DBS) Veterans UK are responsible for ensuring the quality of data to Defence Statistics.

National postcode and Integrated Care Board (ICB) mapping data for England and Wales are sourced from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ONS are responsible for the accuracy and quality of lookup data from this source. Health Authority data for Scotland and Northern Ireland originate from Scottish Government and NIDirect respectively. More information is available in the Background Quality Report.

Data Coverage

The data presented include the following cohorts:

  • Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) Recipients: UK veterans in receipt of an occupational pension under one of the following Armed Forces Pension Schemes: AFPS 75 or APFS 05 as at 31 March 2023. This report does not include those in receipt of AFPS 15, please see Background Quality Report for more details.

  • War Pension Scheme (WPS) Recipients: UK veterans, war widows / widowers and other pensioners in receipt of a War Pension as at 31 March 2023. War Pensions are awarded to compensate for injury, ill health, and death as a result of service in the UK armed forces prior to 6 April 2005.

  • Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) Recipients: UK armed forces personnel and veterans awarded compensation between the start of the scheme (6 April 2005) and 31 March 2023. Compensation is awarded under the AFCS for injury and ill health as a result of service in the UK armed forces on or after 6 April 2005. AFCS Recipients can receive either a Lump Sum award or an ongoing Guaranteed Income Payment (GIP) dependent on the severity of the injury. This report does not include dependants awarded compensation under the AFCS for service-attributable death.

  • Veterans: Includes all recipients of an occupational pension under the AFPS 75 and AFPS 05, disablement pensioners in receipt of a war pension, individuals awarded compensation under the AFCS after leaving service, and in-service recipients of compensation under the AFCS who had later left service as at 31 March 2023. Information presented is not the location of all veterans as not all will be in receipt of these occupational pensions and/or compensation.

Individuals have been excluded if the MOD has been notified of their death. Please note, for individuals who have been awarded a lump sum payment only under AFCS, the MOD may not always be notified of death, therefore numbers may include individuals who have subsequently died.

Data on postcode district has not been provided for Northern Ireland due to security concerns regarding the release of this information.

Methodology to compile data

Data held on the CAPS and the WPCS were combined to produce a single list of pension and compensation recipients. Individuals were only counted once regardless of whether they were in receipt of a pension and/or compensation under more than one scheme. Where individuals were recorded on more than one system, the latest recorded postcode information was used to determine their latest postcode.

Postcode information was linked to ONS-published lookups for all UK geographical breakdowns from Region to Local Authority. For Health Authorities, information about Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) within England and Local Health Boards (LHBs) within Wales were sourced from the ONS lookup tables. Information about Northern Ireland (NI) Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts and Scottish Integration Authorities (IAs) were sourced from NI Direct and Scottish Government SpatialData respectively.

Overseas recipients were identified from region and country codes within the data, further information can be found within the Background Quality Report.

The location information presented in the WPS and AFCS National Statistics publications are based only on the address information available on the relevant data system. Therefore, the location information presented in this publication may differ from previously presented information.

Changes to these statistics

The presentation of pension and compensation recipients by Health Authority (Table 4, supplementary tables) has changed to reflect the introduction of Integrated care boards (ICBs) which replaced clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the NHS in England from 1 July 2022.

Strengths and weaknesses of the data presented in this report

The key weaknesses of these statistics are the amount and accuracy of available data. This statistical bulletin presents location information for UK armed forces veterans who are in receipt of a pension and/or compensation. It does not present the location information for UK armed forces veterans who are not in receipt of a pension or compensation. Therefore, this statistical bulletin cannot be taken as an accurate representation of all UK armed forces veterans. The England and Wales Census 2021 provides a more comprehensive representation of the location of all UK armed forces veterans residing in England and Wales.

To present the location details of those in receipt of a pension and/or compensation, accurate postcode details need to be voluntarily supplied and updated on CAPS and/or WPCS. Those in receipt of ongoing payments may be more likely to provide accurate and up-to-date postcode information than those who have been in receipt of a one-off payment.

The key strength of these statistics is that it combines data captured across a variety of MOD databases to present a single source of information on pension and compensation recipients. The postcode provided is retrieved at the point of claim, therefore it is possible that claimants may have moved in the time prior to the publication. Recipients of a GIP are believed to be updated more frequently due to the ongoing nature of the claim. As at March 2023, 88% of pension and compensation recipients provided a postcode which could be used to identify further location details such as country, region and local health authority.

Glossary

Adult Dependent: Adult relatives, i.e. sister, brother, aunt or uncle etc., for whom the service person was financially responsible.

Allowance for Lowered Standard of Occupation (ALSO): This may be paid if a pensioner’s earning capacity is reduced because their pensioned disablement permanently prevents them following their regular occupation. To gain entitlement, new claimants must be under the age of 65, with a service disablement of at least 40% when they make their claim. This allowance, plus their basic War Disablement Pension cannot exceed the 100% disablement pension rate.

Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS): Compensation scheme for all members of the regular and reserve forces. It provides compensation for all injuries, ill-health and death attributable to service where the cause occurred on or after 6 April 2005.

Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS): Pension available to members of the regular UK armed forces who have served for a minimum of two years:

  • AFPS 75 – Introduced in 1975 and closed to new members from 6 April 2005. Pension benefits are based on rank and time served.

  • AFPS 05 – Introduced on 6 April 2005. Pension benefits are based on time served and final salary.

  • AFPS 15 – Introduced on 1 April 2015. Pensions are calculated using a system called Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE). For more information on how CARE works please go to: Guidance: Armed Forces pensions

Child Allowance: There is a Child Allowance Only Pension in payment, i.e. no award has been given to War Widows / Widowers Pension, but their child has been awarded.

Integrated Care Board (ICB): Clinical commissioning groups were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in England. On 1 July 2022, they were abolished and replaced by Integrated Care Boards (ICB) as a result of the Health and Care Act 2022. The ICB’s in this bulletin reflect the boundaries as at 31 March 2023.

Compensation and Pension System (CAPS): AFPS and AFCS administrative database.

Council Area: There are 32 single-tier council areas in Scotland responsible for all areas of local government.

County (C): There are 24 ’Shire’ Counties in England that have a two-tier system of government. Counties are the upper-tier authorities that administer local government over large areas, with underlying Local Authorities (LA) for local government on smaller scales.

Disablement Pensioner: Ex-service personnel awarded a pension under the War Pensions Scheme for an injury or illness attributable to service from the start of the First World War until 5 April 2005.

Guaranteed Income Payment (GIP): A Guaranteed Income Payment (GIP) is payable when an award has been made under the AFCS and the injury or illness is awarded at tariff levels 1 to 11.

Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts: Provide integrated health and social care services across Northern Ireland. HSC Trusts manage and administer hospitals, health centres, residential homes, day centres and other health and social care facilities and they provide a wide range of health and social care services to the community.

Integration Authorities (IA): The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 led to the dissolution of Community Health Partnerships within Scotland, to be replaced by 31 Integration Authorities by 1 April 2016. The aim was to integrate adult health and social care to streamline access to health services.

Local Authority (LA): A lower-level administrative body in local Government for Counties and Metropolitan Counties in England with a two-tier level of local government.

Local Government Districts (LGD): There are 11 single-tier Local Government Districts in Northern Ireland responsible for all areas of local government.

Local Health Board (LHB): In Wales, the NHS reforms in 2009 saw the former 22 Local Health Boards and seven NHS Trusts replaced with seven integrated Local Health Boards (LHB) and a new Public Health Wales NHS Trust. The seven Local Health Boards plan, secure and deliver healthcare services on their areas. These reforms aim to improve joined up working between health and social care services, to place a greater emphasis on public health and to improve health outcomes.

Local Health Authorities: A summary term used in this report covering all of the health organisations across the UK: England’s Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Scotland’s Integration Authorities, Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Trusts and Wales’ Local Health Boards. See each of the definitions for further detail.

Metropolitan County (MC): There are six Metropolitan Counties in England that have a two-tier system of government. Metropolitan Counties are the upper tier authorities responsible for the services of a local government, with underlying Local Authorities (LA) for local government on smaller scales. The six Metropolitan Counties are densely populated areas outside of Greater London, they are: Tyne and Wear, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the West Midlands.

National Health Service (NHS) England Regions: NHS England have seven regions who support local systems to provide more joined up and sustainable care for patients. They are responsible for the quality, financial and operational performance of all NHS organisations in their region, to improve services for patients and support local transformation. These regions are: North East and Yorkshire, North West, Midlands, East of England, London, South East and South West.

UK serving personnel: UK service personnel comprise the total number of all the military personnel employed by the Ministry of Defence.

UK Veterans: A veteran of the UK armed forces is any person of any age who has served in the UK armed forces for one day or more.

Unitary Authority (UA): Is a single-tier of local government equivalent to County or Metropolitan level administration in England, without underlying Local Authorities (LA). They include major urban centres such as cities and towns. There are 22 Unitary Authorities in Wales which are the sole level of administration.

War Parent: Parent of the deceased service person.

War Pension Computer System (WPCS): WPS administrative database.

War Orphan: Child of deceased service person who has no surviving mother or father, child whose mother or father was divorced from a service person at the time of death or child who is not in the care of the surviving parent.

War Pension Scheme (WPS): No fault compensation scheme for all members of the regular and reserve force. It provides compensation for all injuries, ill-health and death caused or made worse by service from WW1 in 1914 to 5 April 2005. Ex-service personnel are only eligible to claim once they have left the services.

Widow / Widower: Spouse of ex-service person whose death was whilst in service or related to a disablement due to service.

Further information

Symbols

[c] Figure has been suppressed due to Statistical Disclosure Control.

Disclosure Control

In line with the directives of the JSP 200, disclosure control is conducted on all statistical information provided by the MOD to safeguard the confidentiality of individuals. Within these statistics, a risk of disclosure has been considered to be high where numbers presented are fewer than three. In cases where a risk of disclosure exists, numbers fewer than three have been suppressed and marked as ‘[c]’. Where there was only one cell in a row or column that was fewer than three, secondary suppression has been applied to the next smallest figure so that numbers cannot be derived from totals and sub-totals.

Scheme information

Further information on the AFPS, WPS and AFCS can be found on the GOV.UK website:

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