No help for D-Day veterans

But before bowing out of this thread...the public money the MOD adimits will be spent in 2044....Just who exactly will they be sending on that particular trip then?

 

Owen
Yeah but Ron, that was a one off wasn't it?
Would you expect a repeat of that for the 65th & 70th ?
Assuming you'd be able to go.
As already said the D-Day Vets were paid for back in 2004.
Should they expect another freebie this year too?

A WW1 Veteran friend of mine only went back the once, that was in 1986, for the 70th of the Somme.


I hope you noticed I quoted your whole piece

I was merely replying to your "who paid for these chaps to return to Anzio" question , although, in essence, I would have agree with you that 2005 was a one-off.

 

If any war pensioner need help? they only have to ask. For all war pensioner are entitled to priority treatment for their war injuries. If they think they are not being given the right rate.... then appeal! If necessary, you can call on the local board to investigate your claims.

There is no doubt, that for me, I am treated better than all the previous years. For in all those years no one gave a damn.
That the war pensions people have to be very careful..There is no doubt. For now we have fraudsters that is a way of life.
The hire a cripple is not a figment of the imagination...... I can only speak from personal experience. If you are genuine, then you will get help and priority treatment.
Sapper

 

PS I have never been back...Why? Two reasons... One, i would need an ambulance to take me everywhere. Two, I would have to visit all the graves from Sword Beach to Bremen, for my friends died all the way on that long road to Bremen.

The Dutch people (Market garden) offered me a free holiday at their expense. I turned it down with heartfelt thanks, as I did not think I could manage it. Then I had a letter saying "Its no trouble we will have a full time nurse waiting to look after you" I did not go.
Kindness? You bet, and deeply appreciated.
Sapper

 

If any war pensioner need help? they only have to ask. For all war pensioner are entitled to priority treatment for their war injuries. If they think they are not being given the right rate.... then appeal! If necessary, you can call on the local board to investigate your claims.

There is no doubt, that for me, I am treated better than all the previous years. For in all those years no one gave a damn.
That the war pensions people have to be very careful..There is no doubt. For now we have fraudsters that is a way of life.
The hire a cripple is not a figment of the imagination...... I can only speak from personal experience. If you are genuine, then you will get help and priority treatment.
Sapper

Sapper, Im sorry but you are incorrect. I am a genuine war pensioner. I have been treated in the past many times in RAF Halton and many other service establishments for my pensionable injury. Including long spells at Chessington and Headley Court.

My only help on this occasion has been a Ssafa grant towards a washing machine I neither needed or wanted.

I have lost my job while waiting, am not entitled to any benefits because of war pension taking me slightly over the national existance level by one pound and ten pence a week. The only thing taken into account by local council against my claim for council tax was my war pension mobility allowance at the higher rate. This now too has been ignored and Ssafa are fighting to get it recognised that this should be considered exempt.. Only thing is its a 2 year old claim now and I'm being chased for arreers.

My operation for my pensionaable injury has again been cancelled for the third time this year.

I was even pulled in to the local job centre before Xmas on crutches for an assesment on my availabiltiy for work, notwithstanding the fact of being on waiting list, and doctors certificates. The upshot being on arrival the appointment was cancelled...Thank you but I'm not going anywhere now you've dragged me in...Apologies all round...and following week a letter threatening to stop my one pound 10 pence a week due to none attendance at job centre. I give up. I refuse to grovel for anything that minimal.

Another letter follows stating with recent war pension rise I am no longer below national minimum subsistane leveel and one pound 10 pence was duly stopped.

I await my operation still.

On leaving forces, I managed to carry on working in City of London and Scandinavia for many years, ignoring my disabilty, occasionally getting treatment in service hospitals. Now unfourtunately a recent attack of the injury has imoblilisd me and I can certainly see the difference in the last years on individual cases.

All individuals are treated differently. I am not alone in this predicament at the moment. I ask nothing of anyone, what I do object to though is eveyone thinking all is hunky dory, when it plainly is not.

Regards

 

Just signed the petition.

Cheers
Paul

 

If there is one thing I know about... it is war pensions. having been one since 1945.
let me repeat. IF you are suffering a war pensions injury, you are entitled to priority treatment.....No ifs or buts.
If you think you are not getting what you deserve? you can claim for an uprating. No ifs or buts.
The war pensions are bound to follow this up.
IF you are refused you can ask for a "Reconsideration" then if turned down you can appeal, if turned down again... you can ask for a appeal to the local board made up of ordinary men and women........
I am not sure now but the war pensions discount is dependant on your council Some disregard the lot, some disregard some of it. For council tax purposes... If you have £16,000.00 in the bank that is ther limit where you can claim for council tax.
But as to the priority for medical treatment.... Stone wall certain! BUT not for medical needs not associated with the war injuries!
If you dont ask they do not know what you want! If you are being messed about then get in touch with your MP.......
Sapper

 

Without poking a stick in the preverble hornets nest of care my partner works for a NHS Primary Care Trust and she said priority of care is prioritised dependant on diagnosis and or whether its emergency care or planned care.

Which kind of ties in with this on the Veterans website:
Pensions / Compensation

All veterans in England, Scotland and Wales should receive priority access to NHS secondary care for any conditions which are likely to be related to their service, subject to the clinical needs of all patients.

The bit in bold being the key part of the statement. I good gesture on paper but in reality a totally different thing.


Urgh she said if you wish to PM me your personal details ref your treatment/condition etc. she 'maybe' able to advise/help you accordingly if you are not being treated according to the government guidlines etc.

Cheers
Andy

 

Sapper, I am in no way degenerating your understanding, But it is in black and white in war pensions own literature sent to all war pensioners every year at time of annual rise if given. The priority treatment is dependant on the clinickal need as assesses by the doctor involved. The decision and final decision is his or hers and his or hers alone. You are entitled to remind them that you are a war pensioner and have access to priority treatment. You are then entitled to inform War Pensions you think you may not be getting it, and they will investigate on your behalf. They have no regulatory power to insist you be treated as a priority just the same as yourself...to request such treatment. The rule is written and accepted that it is based on the clinical decision as it always has been of the medic involved. If you dont like that you are entitled to change surgeon or whatever. However, he cannot be forced to do anything but CONSIDER you or me a priority case.

I too have been down this road in the 25 years that I too have been a war pensioner.
On occasions it has been accepted on others ignored. On this occasion it is being ignored and I am forced to change surgeons. Its not a case of how ill or disabled the surgeon thinks you are its a case on whether he acknowledges you should have priority on his list.

And that is the way it is written in war pensions advice and information leaflets that will be popping thru both our doors next month as they do every year.

Regards

 

Sorry,

 

Sorry for duplicate posts..

Also sorry as I should have mentioned that the treatment should be for your war pension disability, injury or wound and not for anything else that I am aware of.

Sapper, I am not in any means trying to be dispariging. I am glad you are getting better treatment than you have in the past when needed. That is as it should be and rightly so.

And this is last time I will mention this in this thread and if necessary will open one elsewhere if anyone wishes to read or discuss war pensions, I dont think it belongs here, but cannot but defend my own experiences as you would yours.

My treatment by forces medics was second to none, the rehabiltiation far above what I could have asked for outside.

My subseequent treatment in NHS was acceptable at most times.

I have had treatments in forces hospitals as a civilian and good that was too.

I have never once had a medical professional being aware of priorty access to treatment, even though we are all aware it does exist. Once you tell them it depends on the medic whether they are bothered or not. They seem to know though that the right is based on clinical need as assessed by themselves and no one else. The clinical need though is arbirary as anyone who has been on any operation list will know and depends solely on the person who owns the list. As with anyone though, you have the right to move on to other medics and hospitals.

In my case that is what I have had to do and am getting op in different hospital different team different county within one month of transferring, instead of 3 cancelled ops and a year of waiting with a normal govt target of I believe 18 weeks.

My request for priority treatments on my war pensioned disability went down a bundle. The Ssafa's own enquiries were ignored too.

War pensions are aware and wrote a letter informing my GP who already knew, and my surgeion that I am entitled to priotity CONSIDERATION, for my my war pension disabiltiy treatment.

However I get free prescriptions while I wait. Got to love the the drugs.

Sorry, again not being disparinging, every one has a horror story to tell just as every one has a story of praise.

I know for a fact without the NHS I would be in a home today so I have no gripes there.

Regards

 

Without poking a stick in the preverble hornets nest of care my partner works for a NHS Primary Care Trust and she said priority of care is prioritised dependant on diagnosis and or whether its emergency care or planned care.

Which kind of ties in with this on the Veterans website:
Pensions / Compensation



The bit in bold being the key part of the statement. I good gesture on paper but in reality a totally different thing.


Urgh she said if you wish to PM me your personal details ref your treatment/condition etc. she 'maybe' able to advise/help you accordingly if you are not being treated according to the government guidlines etc.

Cheers
Andy

Andy, thank you and your wife for her offer on my behalf, it is sorted now, I am being treated by another hospital now 3 counties away from my own. The Surgeon there has booked me in for op next month and I have already attended for pre op, transported by good old BL.

Many thanks anyway. Again, I refuse to grovel and maybe like most ex military, that is the problem.

Regards

 

UR. Oh Dear! You do not have to tell me about the shortcomings of our system. My treatment was over a very long period, In that time I was at Military Hospitals WONDERFUL! and civilian DREADFUL! In that respect mate, you have my full sympathy.
I can also feel for you, for I experienced long months of despair that the treatment would never end, And indeed that my leg would be amputated after many months of wasted time. It was my great fortune to come under the care of a genius. He, and he alone, gave me my life back. But on the credit side it was the civilian hospitals that saved my life in later years. and still take great care of me today, For that I am truly and sincerely grateful. You mate have my sympathy I wish you well, and hope that in the end all will be well.
Sapper

 

I am in the process of trying to get funds for veterans to return to Holland, they are not interested in D-Day celebrations, as they were not old enough to attend and would feel like "gate crashers". I know that veterans were given, I think £440, in 2004 to return to place of their choice, but, Councils in Holland for example, are prepared to give them (and 1 guest/carer) accommodation if they can manage to get there.
Think I will have to write to Richard Branson or someone see if they can lay on a few free seats. Any one know who to send a begging letter to at the N/Lottery fund?

 

I am in the process of trying to get funds for veterans to return to Holland, they are not interested in D-Day celebrations, as they were not old enough to attend and would feel like "gate crashers". I know that veterans were given, I think £440, in 2004 to return to place of their choice, but, Councils in Holland for example, are prepared to give them (and 1 guest/carer) accommodation if they can manage to get there.
Think I will have to write to Richard Branson or someone see if they can lay on a few free seats. Any one know who to send a begging letter to at the N/Lottery fund?

Highland, the NL avenue has already been explored. They would not donate to the National Assoication, and it was down to individual Branches to apply for themselves which a number have.

It would be nice, if the likes of Branson put his hand in his pocket, but given the location of Noramndy, Caen is the only provisional airport, and there are only one or two flights from the UK.

If you are serious about writing to the likes of Branson, the National Association have now started an 'OVERLORD' appeal, which has its own bank account (Eventually, but thats a different story) and they would be very gratefull of donations.

Phil

 

school children help D-Day veterans Chorley school children help D-Day veterans' historic trip (From Lancashire Telegraph)
Any D-Day veterans who want help to attend the commemoration in 2009 can contact Mr Goulden on 01257 414455.

The National D-Day Memorial Foundation

 

Here is a nice article about some successful fundraising in Tonbridge, Kent.

Tonbridge raffle raises funds for veterans

 

Everyone has gone blue on here

 

Just a quick word because I feel like an interloper. My partner has on a number of times been admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hosp. Birmingham and Selly Oak Hospital . Four times in a Renal Failure situation , seriously life threatening. During these times she has been nursed sometimes by Forces Personnel and attended by Forces Doctors.
We would both like to say thank you to all concerned. Q.E. Intensive Care is the nearest I have seen to an episode of MASH.
We have signed the Petition. We believe ALL Normanday Veterans should have Free travel to the beaches.
2044 will be one big political shindig while the people who really matter will be long gone, Sorry, rant over

 

Everyone has gone blue on here

No mate its just you...As a computer expert, trained in all things miltary and keyboards, I suggest you unplug, turn upside down, the computer not you..Immerse in cold tea and switch back on.

Please report back to forum whenever you can get back on line with the outcome then I can do same with my pink tag.