Enfield Council has been urged to support veterans, following a motion from Councillor Chris Dey at a council meeting on 12 November 2025.
The motion addresses concerns that some veterans are compelled to relinquish their military compensation to secure essential financial support. It aims to ensure that no member of the Armed Forces Community faces this difficult choice. The motion was prompted by a '2022 Freedom of Information request by the Royal British Legion' which 'showed that only one in five (19%) of Local Authorities in Great Britain rightly disregarded all military compensation when assessing local benefits claims for Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support, Discretionary Housing Payments and Disabled Facilities Grants.'
The motion highlights the obligations the council owes to the Armed Forces community within the borough, as enshrined in the Armed Forces Covenant. It specifically refers to compensation paid under the War Pension Scheme (WPS), Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) or through a veteran's occupational Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS), known as Service Invaliding Pensions (SIPs) or Service Attributable Pensions (SAPs).
The motion resolves that all compensation paid under relevant military compensation schemes should be disregarded as income when assessing applications for benefits over which the council exercises discretion.
The motion also included instructing the Executive Director for Resources to amend relevant local policies to reflect such a position, and for the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement to update members on this work, reporting back to a future meeting of this Council. The motion does not specify a timeline for these amendments, but tasks the Executive Director for Resources to update local policies and the Deputy Leader to report back to the council at a future meeting.
