Council extends support for war veterans
Eastleigh Borough Council has revised its policies to ensure that all military compensation paid to our war veterans is disregarded as income when they apply for all means tested benefits such as Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) and Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG).
The Council will now disregard any war related income in the financial assessment during the DHP or DFG application including;
- War Widows Pension
- War Widows Special Payment
- War Disablement Pension
- War Pension Mobility Supplement
- Armed Forces Compensation Scheme
- Armed Forces independence Payment
150,000 members of the Armed Forces community receive military compensation in the UK, paid by the government to support with the ongoing costs of an illness or injury acquired in service to the UK Armed Forces.
DHP’s help people with housing costs and play an important role in helping to sustain tenancies, prevent homelessness, and enable tenants to move to more affordable accommodation. DFG’s are grants awarded to pay for essential adaptations to a person’s home to enable them to remain living at home for longer and maintain or increase their independence.
Council Leader Keith House said, “Eastleigh Borough Council signed up to an ‘Armed Forces Community Covenant’ in 2013. These amendments to our means tested benefit policy will allow us to further support our Armed Forces community.”
Hannah Pearce, Director of Campaigns, Policy and Research at RBL, said “ It’s really good news for the Armed Forces community in Eastleigh that Eastleigh Borough Council has taken action to remove this injustice. We want to thank Eastleigh Borough Council for working with us and doing the right thing by veterans and the whole Armed Forces community. All councils in Great Britain have signed the Armed Forces covenant, and this is a really good example of the tangible difference Councils can make to some of the poorest veterans in their community.”