Military PTSD compensation claims: a guide to expert psychiatric evidence

A serving or former member of the armed forces with post-traumatic stress disorder may have more than one route to compensation, and each asks different questions of the psychiatric evidence. The first step in a military PTSD claim is to identify which routes are open; the second is to make sure the evidence in the military PTSD compensation claim meets the test each route applies. There are three main routes: the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, the War Pensions Scheme and a civil claim against the Ministry of Defence.

Three routes for a military PTSD claim

The date of the injury decides the no-fault route. The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) covers injury caused by service on or after 6 April 2005. The War Pensions Scheme covers injury caused or made worse by service before that date. A civil claim in negligence is separate from both and requires proof of fault.

PTSD may emerge years after the events that caused it, and a veteran’s service may span 6 April 2005. The expert should therefore date the traumatic events relied on, not only the onset of symptoms.

The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme

The AFCS is governed by the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces (Compensation Scheme) Order 2011 (SI 2011/517) and pays awards from a tariff. Table 3 of Schedule 3 grades mental disorders by the severity and duration of functional limitation, not by diagnosis, and duration runs from when the claimant first sought medical advice (art. 5(5)). Where service is a partial cause, it must be the predominant cause (art. 8). The claimant bears the burden of proof, on the balance of probabilities (arts. 60 and 61).

Since 6 April 2026, a mental disorder must be diagnosed by a registered mental health professional (doctor, psychologist or nurse) working in a multidisciplinary mental health team overseen by a named consultant clinical lead (SI 2026/272). Psychiatric evidence for an AFCS claim or appeal needs to address the diagnosis, the level of functional limitation, its duration, the prognosis and the predominant cause.

The War Pensions Scheme

Claims for injury caused or worsened by service before 6 April 2005 fall under the Naval, Military and Air Forces Etc. (Disablement and Death) Service Pensions Order 2006 (SI 2006/606). Its approach to proof is more favourable to the claimant than the AFCS:

• for a claim made within seven years of the end of service, there is no onus on the claimant to prove the conditions for an award, and the benefit of any reasonable doubt goes to the claimant (art. 40);
• for a later claim, the conditions must be shown, but where reliable evidence raises a reasonable doubt, the claimant has the benefit of it (art. 41). Where the claim rests on aggravation by service, the injury must remain aggravated when the claim is made.

Disablement is assessed as a percentage by comparison with a normal healthy person of the same age and sex, without regard to earning capacity (art. 42). The psychiatric evidence therefore needs to deal with diagnosis, attribution to or aggravation by service before 6 April 2005, and the degree of disablement. We prepare psychiatric reports for War Pension claims and appeals.

A civil claim against the Ministry of Defence

A negligence claim may be available where the PTSD was caused by a breach of the Ministry of Defence’s duty of care, for example in training, supervision or medical care. Two limits are specific to service claims.

First, s.10 of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947 excluded liability in tort for the death or injury of service personnel in defined circumstances where the Secretary of State certified that the injury was attributable to service for pension purposes. The Crown Proceedings (Armed Forces) Act 1987 repealed s.10 for acts or omissions on or after 15 May 1987, the date the Act was passed (s.1). The Secretary of State may revive s.10 by order where it appears necessary or expedient because of imminent national danger, a great emergency, or warlike operations outside the United Kingdom (s.2).

Second, combat immunity excludes a duty of care for active operations against the enemy. In Smith v Ministry of Defence [2013] UKSC 41 the Supreme Court held that the doctrine must be construed narrowly and does not extend to the planning and preparation of operations; claims about equipment and training decided away from the battlefield were allowed to proceed to trial.

Limitation is three years from the date of the injury or, if later, the claimant’s date of knowledge (ss.11 and 14 Limitation Act 1980), subject to the court’s discretion to disapply it (s.33). When the claimant first knew that the condition was significant and attributable to the alleged breach can be disputed in PTSD claims, and the psychiatric account of onset and course may bear on it.

The psychiatric evidence is a condition and prognosis report under CPR Part 35, covering diagnosis, causation (including the contribution of events outside the alleged breach), the effect on work and daily life, prognosis and treatment needs. The expert’s duty is to the court and overrides any obligation to the party who instructs or pays them (r.35.3). We prepare psychiatric reports for military negligence claims.

How the routes interact

Under article 40 of the AFCS Order, damages recovered for the same injury can reduce or extinguish AFCS benefit, unless the benefit was already taken into account when the damages were assessed. Damages include settlements, whether or not proceedings were issued, and the claimant may be required to disclose steps taken to recover them.

The two no-fault schemes share an appeal route. In England and Wales, appeals go to the First-tier Tribunal (War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber), whose panel normally includes a medical member; Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate tribunals.

A single assessment can serve more than one route, but the questions differ. A report written for a civil claim will not necessarily address the AFCS descriptors or the War Pensions percentage assessment. Set out the route and its test in the letter of instruction, and give the expert the full service medical record, deployment history, GP and NHS records, any Veterans UK decisions and the claimant’s statement.

Our military PTSD and armed forces psychiatric reports cover all three routes.