UnBloody Believable: A Broken Covenant

Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, 23 year-old British paratrooper, who proudly volunteered to serve his country, was grievously wounded in September, 2006, on the front lines in Afghanistan.

He suffered a total of 37 terrible injuries when he was blown up by a land mine, losing both legs and sustaining damage to his spine, skull, pelvis, hands, spleen and ribcage, and was in a coma for 3 months, during which he contracted MRSA.

After gradually regaining consciousness he could not speak and remembered nothing of the past three years.

Today he is making progress but with no legs, a badly disabled left arm and a severely damaged spine.
He is struggling to learn to speak again and cannot take in liquids by mouth.

Ben is expected to spend a year or more in a military rehabilitation center, but will then need a specially-adapted home and specialized daily care.

He has been told that red tape surrounding the Government's compensation scheme means only three of his injuries can be taken into account. The rest count for nothing.

As compensation for his ruined life, Ben has been offered only £152,150 - little more than half the maximum award for maimed military personnel and less than a third of the £484,000 doled out to an RAF typist who claimed she had suffered repetitive strain injury to her thumb.

In addition to his lump sum, Ben will receive a pension of around £19,000 a year. But his family believe a far bigger award is crucial to enable him to rebuild a life with some dignity.

In a civil claim involving similar injuries, an individual could expect compensation of upwards of a million pounds.

Ben's mother, Mrs. Diane Dernie, has been told that Ben's case does not qualify for legal aid.

Mrs. Dernie has shunned publicity but she is so angry at the treatment of her son that she has decided to spearhead the campaign to raise £50,000 to fund the first High Court challenge against the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, arguing that its rules are patently unfair in the most severe cases.

A successful judicial review would ensure that several other soldiers maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan will receive financial security.

Ben's case exemplifies the mounting concern about the Government's treatment of the Armed Forces.

Opposition MPs, veterans' organizations and even some commanders are arguing that the military covenant - which guarantees personnel fair treatment in return for risking their lives - is being broken.

The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme was set up in 2005 to cover payments to men and women injured on duty.

Losing all four limbs is a Category 1 injury, earning a £285,000 lump sum. But having both legs amputated is in Category 3, worth only £115,000.

His brain injury is also in Category 3, but for his second injury he receives only 30 per cent of the maximum - an additional £34,500.

Finally he receives a paltry £2,650 for severe fractures which rendered his left arm almost useless.

None of his other injuries is worth a penny.

And if that doesn't make you mad enough, check this out:

• an RAF typist who injured her thumb at work was awarded £484,000 after suing the Ministry of Defence. The woman developed a repetitive strain injury while typing computer data and claimed it left her unable to work and caused her to become depressed.

• a Fraudster who never held down a job receives £248,000 after claiming he fell over in the shower at Wayland Prison, Norfolk. He claimed the injury left his legs numb and made him impotent. He later fathered a daughter.

• a Teacher won £330,000 from Birmingham City Council for her "trauma" after an intruder enters her classroom but does not physically harm her.

• a Prisoner who tried to kill himself at Northallerton Young Offenders' Institution in North Yorkshire was awarded £575,000 from the Prison Service - even though his life was saved by prison officers.

• A total of £750,000 was paid to 197 heroin addicts who claimed that the "cold turkey" withdrawal treatment they were forced to go through amounted to "torture".

Do a sore thumb, a fake fall, a dubious trauma, a failed suicide, supposed 'torture' = what this brave young man has suffered?

I think not.

I hope the MoD get off their collective arses and do right by Ben.