The Ministry of Defence has set out how long it takes on average to process claims under the War Pension Scheme and the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, in a written parliamentary answer published on 28 May 2026.
The figures were given by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Louise Sandher-Jones in response to a written question from Stuart Anderson, the Conservative MP for South Shropshire, who asked how long applications take to complete under each scheme. The minister pointed to the department’s annual statistics, published on GOV.UK, and supplied clearance times for the 2024-25 financial year. Clearance time is measured as the number of working days between the MoD receiving a claim and the decision being finalised and notified, so the elapsed calendar time is longer once weekends and public holidays are counted.
Under the War Pension Scheme, first claims took a median of 200 working days and a mean of 198 in 2024-25, according to the department. Second and subsequent claims ran to a median of 194 working days against a mean of 200. Claims from widows and widowers were settled considerably faster, at a median of 59 working days and a mean of 61. Appeals showed the widest gap between the two measures, with a median of 156 working days but a mean of 255, indicating that a smaller number of protracted cases pulled the average well above the midpoint.
The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme figures followed a similar pattern. Injury and illness claims took a median of 122 working days and a mean of 152, while survivors’ claims ran longer at a median of 178 and a mean of 235. Reconsiderations were completed in a median of 118 working days against a mean of 122. Appeals again stood out as the slowest category, at a median of 315 working days and a mean of 416, the longest processing time in either scheme.
The two schemes cover different periods of service. The War Pension Scheme deals with injury, illness or death attributable to service before 6 April 2005, while the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme applies to service on or after that date, and both operate on a no-fault basis administered by the MoD on behalf of veterans and their families. Because the older War Pension Scheme is closed to new periods of service, its caseload increasingly reflects long-standing conditions and bereavement claims rather than recent injuries.
The minister said updated figures for 2025-26 are due to follow. War Pension Scheme statistics for that year are scheduled for publication on 2 July 2026, while the corresponding Armed Forces Compensation Scheme data is currently expected in autumn 2026, both on GOV.UK.
