Armed Forces Compensation Scheme

There is a strict time limit to make a claim through the AFCS. You have 7 years from the time you were injured or became ill to make an AFCS claim.

In general, claims must be lodged within seven years of the date of the incident, but there are some exceptions:

• Conditions or illnesses. Claim forms must be submitted within three years of seeking medical advice
• A service man or woman’s death. The claim must be brought within three years of the date of death

You can make a claim even if you are still serving in the Armed Forces – you don’t have to wait until you leave.

You just need to submit a claim form to Veterans UK, giving details about your illness or injury. You’ll need to also add in why you think it was caused by serving in the Armed Forces and what treatment you’ve had.

We can help you with submitting this application and use our wider knowledge to make sure your AFCS claim is successful.

As long as your accident or illness happened on or after 6 April 2005, and you are within the time limits, you can make a claim.

It doesn’t matter if you are still serving either – you can still make a claim.

There is a tariff table for each injury or illness. The amount of Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payout you get will depend on how serious your injury or illness is.

The ACFS tariff classes each injury from level 1 to 15 – with 15 being the most severe. You can see a list of injuries and tariffs on the Gov.UK website, but we’ll be happy to talk this through with you when you get in touch.

Yes you can. A civil claim may be a better option for you and this is something we can talk about in your free claims assessment. Civil claim compensation is usually higher than an AFCS award, because in any civil claim the MoD would be found responsible for your illness or injury.

You can’t be compensated twice for an injury or illness, so any award from AFCS will be credited against any compensation from a civil claim.

There are 2 types of awards in an AFCS claim. These payments are not made after a civil claim.

1. Guaranteed Income Payment – where your injury or illness affects your earnings and impacts you long term, a guaranteed income payment give you a lifelong, tax free outcome. It will be based on your ability to work in the future.
2. Survivor Guaranteed Income Payment – this is a regular payment made to dependents of anyone who died in service.

Your compensation is supposed to be paid out in 6 months, but we find it can usually take longer than that.

The more complex your illness or injury is, the longer it will take to get your compensation.