Funding for armed forces veterans is set to face cuts by the Treasury
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has announced plans to cut funding for armed forces veterans and their families, according to Larisa Brown, The Times’ defence editor.
While it seems they were happy to increase defence spending by an additional £24.1 billion for the next four years in November, apparently, they aren’t willing to direct any of that cash flow towards the families of those who have served.
Funding for armed forces veterans is believed to be cut by 40 percent. Naturally, the announcement saw immediate backlash and J0hnny Mercer – former army officer and current Tory MP for Plymouth Moor View – was quickly approached for a comment:
War widows have criticised the plans, with chairperson of the war widows association, Mary Moreland, saying the money could be used to help people like the 300 women who have been denied their pensions
— Larisa Brown (@larisamlbrown) March 24, 2021
Mercer pressed on this again. Says there have been budget discussions for months and lots of different cases have been put forward.
— Larisa Brown (@larisamlbrown) March 24, 2021
Mercer is the current Minister for Defence People and Veterans in the Ministry of Defence and Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. However, despite it being literally part of his job, there seems to be some confusion. This could be a lack of communication or misinformation, but it also looks likely to be a case of people struggling to get their stories straight.
Potential decisions like this continue to beg the question: where do the government’s priorities lie? It certainly doesn’t seem to be in the interest of the people. Funding for armed forces veterans is one thing but what about all the other sectors where money is going?
They were more than happy to hand out a £40,000 pay-rise to naughty boy, Dominic Cummings. They were all right behind an 11% salary bump for themselves too, until they remembered there was a pandemic on.
Keep in mind, this is the same administration that deemed a 12.5% rise for nurses, “one for the fairies”. That comment was made by Karl McCartney, MP for Lincoln. He said that at the start of this month, after nearly a full year of NHS nursing staff being real heroes in the fight against Covid-19, yet still having to settle for a nice clap every Thursday night.
Now, it seems a whole other group of people who quite literally embody the definition of ‘serving your country’ are worth not only less than politicians but, seemingly, even less than they were last year.
Veterans often come home questioning why the were sent to (insert war-torn country here) – odds are that question will be hanging even heavier over their heads now they will no longer receive the same level of benefits they deserve.
