Agenda item

To consider the following Motion in the names of Councillors A Smith and Burke;

“This Council notes:

1)    In the 2021 Census, Kirklees was home to 8,942 people who reported that they had previously served in the regular UK Armed Forces;

2)    The obligations it owes to the armed forces community within Kirklees, as enshrined in the Armed Forces Covenant; that the armed forces community should not face disadvantage in the provision of services;

3)    That a number of military compensation schemes exist to recognise and compensate service personnel and their families, for the hardship, inconvenience or ongoing impact conditions, such as PTSD, limb or hearing loss;

4)    Whilst some benefits, such as Universal Credit, rightly disregard military compensation as income, others administered by or subject to the discretion of local authorities do not always do so. This means that some veterans must give up part of their compensation in order to access essential support. A 2022 Freedom of Information request by the Royal British Legion showed that nationally, only one in five (19%) of local authorities rightly disregarded all military compensation when assessing local benefit claims for Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support, Discretionary Housing Payments and Disabled Facilities Grants. In Kirklees, Discretionary Housing Payments are currently not disregarded; The Kirklees Armed Forces Covenant focuses on general support, housing, healthcare and integration, rather than explicitly referencing military compensation or its treatment in welfare means tests;

5)    There are over 1 million veterans nationally over the State Pension age with 146,000 estimated to be eligible for Pension Credit. However, current rules may deny them support if their military compensation is counted as income;

6)    Under the Armed Forces Covenant principles and statutory duty (Armed Forces Act 2021), councils must have due regard to these principles in housing, healthcare and education decisions. However, welfare benefit means tests are not covered by the legal duty and currently remain discretionary;

7)    The Royal British Legion ‘Credit their Service’ campaign exists to address the issue in the previous point, demanding an end to the treatment of military compensation as income by welfare benefit means test, as it results in many veterans and their families missing out on thousands of pounds each year. The Royal British Legion argue that it breaches the Armed Forces Covenant principle that veterans should face no disadvantage compared to civilians;

This Council believes that:

1)    No member of the armed forces community should be forced to give up their military compensation to access the same welfare support as their civilian counterparts;

2)    All compensation paid under any of the relevant military compensation schemes should be treated as such and not regarded as income when the local authority assesses applications for benefits over which they exercise discretion: Council Tax Support scheme, Housing Benefit, Discretionary Housing Payments and Disabled Facilities Grants. Rather it should be treated as intended, as a compensatory payment made in recognition of the often significant and life-changing service or sacrifice an individual has made in the course of their service in our nation’s Armed Forces.

This Council, therefore, resolves to:

1)    Support the Royal British Legion’s call for all forms of military compensation to be disregarded as income in the assessment and administration of locally administered benefits over which the Council exercises discretion;

2)    Write to the Minister for Veterans urging a change in national regulations so that military compensation is universally not treated as income in benefit assessments. This should be Government mandated and a requirement of the Armed Forces Covenant. Furthermore, Government should provide financial support to councils to deliver on the regulatory changes.”

Item not considered (Meeting terminated in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 16:2).