Just a timely reminder to anyone going through the process of a medical discharge due to injury in service.

Today I got a letter from SPVA informing me they had decided my claim had failed as my injury was not due to service reasons. This is despite the injury happening during normal working hours, in an MoD building contained in a military Barracks doing a task I could reasonably be expected to do!

I have obviously challenged their decision using the grounds they quoted, but my point for writing is be very careful to put full information down on both your claim form (if you have to complete one) and FMED 24. If you need to attached continuation sheets you must do so to get full details across.

Link below is to the AFCS legislation which is what SPVA use, not JSP 765:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/517/part/2/made

oO i had the wife type up 7 or 8 pages of a4 and numbered them iaw the guidance notes in the jsp on completing the fmed ready for the PSMB interview, although to be fair i had over 10 different forms ot complete and i think maybe 1 i did myself

i hope you got the title of your challenge letter correct or they might make you do it again as the guy down the road from me had ot do 3 times, lucky for me i got told what to put by the nice people in spva when i range them practicly in a flat spin ...


i hope your challenge gets sorted before your out date or it will screw up them telling norcross to assess you as well, which might well result in you getting delayed assessment for any WP or GIP funny how they assessed mine purely under WP for soemthing that had reoccured with a vengance post 2006 ....

bizzarly i still might be lodging another claim under both for a secondary problem that made the bloke doing the mri go rather grey in the face and tell me i need to get an earlier appt with the specialist or it might be too late, still i'm sure it cant be that bad or they wouldnt of let me go home .

Originally Posted by nanotm

oO i had the wife type up 7 or 8 pages of a4 and numbered them iaw the guidance notes in the jsp on completing the fmed ready for the PSMB interview, although to be fair i had over 10 different forms ot complete and i think maybe 1 i did myself

i hope you got the title of your challenge letter correct or they might make you do it again as the guy down the road from me had ot do 3 times, lucky for me i got told what to put by the nice people in spva when i range them practicly in a flat spin ...


i hope your challenge gets sorted before your out date or it will screw up them telling norcross to assess you as well, which might well result in you getting delayed assessment for any WP or GIP funny how they assessed mine purely under WP for soemthing that had reoccured with a vengance post 2006 ....

bizzarly i still might be lodging another claim under both for a secondary problem that made the bloke doing the mri go rather grey in the face and tell me i need to get an earlier appt with the specialist or it might be too late, still i'm sure it cant be that bad or they wouldnt of let me go home .

You've missed the point mate, my Med Board filled in the paperwork correctly saying I'm proper fucked, but the wankers at SPVA Norcross say that as I was on my way to wash my hands it wasn't a hazardous task in a hazardous environment nor was it training!

Needless to say the appeal has gone in straight away, using the legislation (the link above) rather than the JSP which they don't refer to, countering all their reasons to reject my claim which should have resulted in a Tier 5 or 6 award. I'm very prepared to take this to tribunal and involve a few independent journalists that have expressed an interest!

perhaps crossed wires, i meant the fmed part more than any other which is all based on the soldier and there responces

and yeah norcross seem determined to save money by denying claims or admitting htem and then reducing the level wherever possible, if i was you i would get a copy of H&S legislation and add that to your complaint (if not done already) because unless you created the hazard which caused the accident or ignored a known hazard on purpose to have the accident (assuming you slipped tripped or fell as a result of a hazard whilst traversing the distance from the work area to the washpoint) they have no defence against a claim of a verified workplace accident (something i believe they have attempted ot defend at the high court a few times and failed)

i'd keep the ace in the whole of public scorn via the media in the back pocket though, as i understand things passing info to the media wihtout written permisson from the brass is bad for payment prospects.

Originally Posted by nanotm

perhaps crossed wires, i meant the fmed part more than any other which is all based on the soldier and there responces

and yeah norcross seem determined to save money by denying claims or admitting htem and then reducing the level wherever possible, if i was you i would get a copy of H&S legislation and add that to your complaint (if not done already) because unless you created the hazard which caused the accident or ignored a known hazard on purpose to have the accident (assuming you slipped tripped or fell as a result of a hazard whilst traversing the distance from the work area to the washpoint) they have no defence against a claim of a verified workplace accident (something i believe they have attempted ot defend at the high court a few times and failed)

i'd keep the ace in the whole of public scorn via the media in the back pocket though, as i understand things passing info to the media wihtout written permisson from the brass is bad for payment prospects.

Crossed wires? Understandable, Tramadol will do that for you! You are spot on about the FMED 24, it is vitally important spending time & getting advice when filling that in.

I've quoted JSP's & legislation, explained the hazards of the workplace and, finally, my unit have said they will support me if necessary (about bloody time!).

I had the whole "non service reasons" thing from AFCS and its taken me over 2 years to get to a tribunal date in the next 3 months.... AFCS tribunals are heavily overwhelmed at the moment so please be patient and hang in there. They WANT you to give up and go away.

Good luck Escotia, especially with whatever made the MRI Radiologist go grey :(

Just an update on my AFCS claim which the lovely people at SPVA rejected. I appealed their decision which took 3 attempts and a recorded delivery before they acknowledged it and they eventually sent it to their reconsiderations dept.

2 months later I've received a letter confirming they are upholding the original decision as:

"In reconsidering your claim I sought advice from Defence Safety and Environmental Authority on the status of MT Bays as hazardous areas. In their reply they advise that MT Bays are not designated as hazardous environments in either MOD or Army policy. You were not engaged in a hazardous activity at the time of the injury; you were walking from one place to another. The training exercise for which you had been providing support had ended and you were in the process of returning equipment to the stores. An exception to Article 11(3) is not therefore established and no benefit is payable".

I'm appealing this decision and will take it all the way to an independent tribunal no matter how long it takes.

Just be aware, even though my injury was sustained on camp during normal working hours the SPVA could use the same argument for anyone injured in any location even on Ops!

whilst exceptionally shitty it seems to be the standard that the awards service operates under, and it seems that essentially there declaring you were a civvy wandering about under your own recogniscence and as such as per standard entry caveates for any military building/base/camp do so at your own risk, odd they would take such a stance if your actually in uniform and wrapping up the end of task stuff like returnign gear to stores, but it does rather explain why all the ta bods where i used to work would do that stuff in there civi cloths then refuse to help wiht any of the unloading from the vehicles they just arrived with ......perhaps they all knew through experiance of the problems of claiming for injuries sustained on duty.


to me there ignoring rather studiously there the fact that if your still on camp and the endex has been called its not over till the stores wallah says its all back unless your admin order for the ex was remiss in including you as the person detailed for that task i cant see they could actually win such a claim in tribunal or indeed in court.

How much did you injure yourself slipping/tripping? Have you recovered or is it a long term/life injury?

Dingerr,

Completely ruptured left quadriceps. Repaired by drilling the patella & putting in pins, rope sutures fixed to quadriceps then winched down to pins & tied off. Leg immobilised to effect healing but followed a few weeks later by extensive DVT which has blocked all the veins in my left leg and will not get better. Vein valves now no good so blood pooling makes my leg look bigger than a big thing on a big day and I have to wear a compression stocking all the time to keep it within reasonable limits! To top it all off I had an abscess that had to be operated on and some months later, when physio started, it was found I had torn my cartilage which had to be cleaned up.

Injury is life long and all the specialists say it will only get worse, possibly to the point of losing the leg.