Exclusive: Injured Iraq veteran wins long battle for full war pension

A YORKSHIRE ex-serviceman badly injured in the Iraq war has won his long-running battle with the Government for a proper war pension.

Former L/Cpl Adam Douglas has received a written apology and a promise of proper financial compensation from the Government's controversial Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA) after it accepted civil servants made a mistake while assessing his case in 2007.

Mr Douglas, 43, from Leeds, sustained devastating injuries while fighting on the front line in Iraq in 2003. Having suffered back, leg, arm and organ damage in a grenade attack, he now requires a stick to walk, a frame to get in and out of bed and suffers from severely reduced mobility, sporadic pain, incontinence and impotence.

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But despite having been assessed by doctors as 70 per cent disabled, Mr Douglas has only received Government payments at a reduced 20 per cent rate since 2007 owing to an erroneous medical assessment.

Following a painfully slow appeal process lasting nearly three years, the SPVA wrote to Mr Douglas earlier this month with a full apology, accepting it had made a mistake and promising to pay his pension in full – including a backdated lump sum.

"It's been a constant battle," Mr Douglas said. "This is a fantastic result, of course, but I have had to fight and fight for this.

"There were so many times I was ready just to give up on it altogether, but I just kept thinking no – it's what I'm entitled to."

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The SPVA has attracted huge controversy for the way it deals with injured veterans. Mr Douglas has already fought and won a separate battle with the agency for his wife Maria to receive a carer's allowance.

His experience has been such that he set up a charity several years ago to help veterans in similar situations to himself. He says he is currently dealing with nearly 60 cases of distressed ex-servicemen, around half of them linked to the war pension process.

"The Veterans Agency and indeed the whole system is overly-complicated, and not fit for purpose," he said. "It isn't working and they know it. "

Mr Douglas joined the Army when he was 16. Having left after 15 years' service, he later joined the Territorial Army and was called up to the front line during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

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Mr Douglas was blown up by a rocket-propelled grenade during a fearsome battle with the Iraqi Republican Guard over a bridge on the outskirts of Basra.

He was given a war pension after being classed as 70 per cent disabled, but in 2007 the SPVA said he had to be given a further medical by Atos, a private firm paid by the agency to deal with injured veterans.

Atos assessed Mr Douglas at just 20 per cent disabled, and he has been receiving a much reduced pension ever since.

Mr Douglas appealed to a tribunal, but it has taken almost three years for a final decision on his case to be made. The letter he received from the SPVA last week is unequivocal, however.

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It states: "The level of disability should not have been assessed by our medical advisor. This office accepts responsibility for the error that has occurred and would like to apologise for any inconvenience or distress this may have caused. Action will be taken to correct your (pension) to 70 per cent."