Ill-Health Benefits - Non-attributable ill-health benefits
Armed Forces (Pensions and Compensation) Bill
11:15 am
Mr Ivor Caplin (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Defence; Hove, Labour)
I think that the hon. Gentleman meant to say successors, not predecessors, but who knows in this game?
While the Government remain in power and while I am a Minister, we will come back to the House regularly if and when we need to change the tariff. I do not want to say that that will be an annual event; it may occur once or twice a year or once every 18 months. Nevertheless, I want the flexibility that new clause 16 would remove. I shall therefore ask my hon. Friends to resist it if necessary. I hope that the Committee is clear about Government policy on the tariffs.
We talked about the standard of proof. I want to make one further point in reply to the hon. Member for New Forest, West about what happens in cases of late illnesses and so on. We would expect people to claim in such cases, but the compensation conditions set out in the framework document recognise that late onset can arise. Separate provisions have been made for that in terms of medicine and the way forward.
I made an important point about the change in compensation. At the moment, people have to leave service until we can compensate them with a lump sum under the war pensions scheme. Under the new scheme, we will be able to pay them a lump sum while they are in service. That seems an eminently sensible and practical way forward.