Coccyx fracture compensation and the new AFCS descriptor

What was added on 6 April 2026

The Armed Forces and Reserve Forces (Compensation Scheme) (Amendment) Order 2026 came into force on 6 April 2026. Its article 10(3) amends the tariff in Schedule 3 by inserting a new row into Table 8, the table covering fractures and dislocations, immediately after item 41. That row is item 41A.

The £6,415 is the standard level 13 lump sum, the same for everyone at that level whatever their rank or salary, and not specific to the coccyx. The other fourteen levels are on the AFCS tariff table, and how a condition gets matched to a level is covered on AFCS tariff levels explained.

Two conditions, and what happens if you meet only one

Read the descriptor slowly, because it is two separate tests joined by an "and", not one test with a description attached.

• Operative treatment. The fracture has required, or is expected to require, surgery.
• Significant functional limitation beyond 26 weeks. The fracture has caused, or is expected to cause, that limitation past the 26 week mark.

Both halves are written in the same forward-looking form, "has required or is expected to require" and "has caused or is expected to cause". A case that has not yet run its course is not shut out by the wording, and a prognosis can satisfy the descriptor in the way a completed history can.

If you meet one condition but not the other, item 41A does not apply to you. That does not mean nothing does, because Table 8 holds a long list of other fracture and dislocation descriptors. We cannot tell you which of them fits. Matching medical evidence to descriptor wording is what a Veterans UK assessor does on your records, and any page claiming to do it for you is guessing.

Level 13 pays a lump sum and nothing else

This part is worth being blunt about, before a decision letter does it for you. The Guaranteed Income Payment is payable only on tariff levels 1 to 11. Level 13 is below that line, so item 41A produces a one-off £6,415 and no monthly income at all.

Armed Forces Independence Payment does not follow either. AFIP runs off the GIP and needs a GIP percentage of 50% or more, which in practice means levels 1 to 8. An award at level 13 is a long way from it.

What the scheme does when no descriptor covers your injury

The Order says why item 41A was created, in its own Explanatory Note: article 10 inserts a new descriptor into Table 8 "to make one temporary award permanent". Follow that sentence back and it opens up the part of the scheme almost nobody explains.

The tariff is not a closed list. Article 26 of the 2011 scheme order lets the Secretary of State make a temporary award where no descriptor covers the injury a claimant has. It is a decision taken on the claim, not a separate product with its own form, and there is nothing you can tick to request one by name. All you can do is describe the injury and its effects properly, because that description is the only material the decision can be made on.

Article 26 then says what happens next. Under article 26(6)(a), if the Order is amended within a year to include a descriptor at the same level, "a decision is to be issued making a permanent award in favour of the claimant, which takes effect on the day on which the amending Order comes into force". The conversion is automatic: no fresh claim, no reapplication.

So the sequence behind this page is that at least one person fractured their coccyx in service, no descriptor covered it, the Secretary of State made a temporary award, and on 6 April 2026 that award became permanent at level 13 as item 41A came into force.

Be careful what you take from that. We cannot tell you how often a temporary award is made, how many are refused, or what the odds are that any particular gap gets filled inside the year. Five items across three Orders is not a flood. The useful conclusion is narrower: "there is no descriptor for this injury" is not the same sentence as "there is no claim here".

If your coccyx was assessed before 6 April 2026

Someone refused before that date, because nothing in the tables fitted, is in a different position from the person who held a temporary award. Article 26(6)(a) reaches temporary awards, not decisions that turned the claim away, so there is no automatic conversion for a refusal.

The route back is reconsideration under article 53. The application must be made within one year, starting with the date the notice of the original decision was given or sent to you, and you get one attempt: a reconsideration decision does not give you the right to apply for another. Use the year rather than the first fortnight of it, because the evidence you put in is the whole of what the second decision runs on.

Timing matters for a second reason. Article 5 of the same 2026 Order changed which tariff applies. Where a reconsideration improves the decision, by awarding benefit that was refused, moving it to a higher tariff level, or adding a descriptor, the lump sum is paid at the tariff in force on the date of the reconsideration decision, not the date the claim was made.

Past those 12 months there is no general right to have a decision reopened. If you have never claimed at all, the ordinary time limit is 7 years under article 47, running from the earliest of the incident, service making an existing condition worse, first seeking medical advice for an illness, or discharge. How to claim AFCS sets out the form and the evidence.

The 6 April 2005 border still decides everything

Item 41A is an AFCS descriptor, so it only reaches injuries caused by service on or after 6 April 2005. If your tailbone was broken in service before that date, there is no point looking for a descriptor: the War Pension Scheme covers you instead, and it does not work by descriptors and tariff levels at all. It assesses a degree of disablement as a percentage and pays a weekly pension from that, so nothing on this page transfers across. AFCS vs War Pension sets out which side of the date you are on.

The official booklet does not mention the coccyx

JSP 765 is the MOD's own statement of policy for the AFCS, and the current edition was published on 17 February 2026, seven weeks before the Order came into force. The booklet shows it: the word coccyx does not appear anywhere in it, and it still prints the pre-April-2026 tariff figures throughout.

That is not a reason to doubt item 41A, and it is worth knowing which document wins. JSP 765 says in terms that the rules of each scheme prevail if there is any inconsistency with the JSP. The legislation is the scheme; the booklet is guidance about it that has not caught up. So if a letter, an adviser or a search result tells you there is no AFCS descriptor for a fractured coccyx, the citation that answers it is SI 2026/272, article 10(3).

What to do with this

• If you are claiming now for a fractured tailbone, address the two conditions directly: whether surgery was needed or is expected, and how long the functional limitation has lasted or is expected to last past 26 weeks.
• If your injury is not in the tables at all, claim anyway and describe the effects in full. A temporary award is a decision the Secretary of State can take on a claim, and it cannot be taken on a claim nobody sent.
• If you were refused in the last 12 months, reconsideration under article 53 is the route, and you have one attempt at it. Build the evidence first.
• Expect a lump sum and nothing more. Level 13 carries no GIP and no AFIP, so plan around £6,415 rather than a monthly income.
• Get free help before paying for it. The Veterans Welfare Service and the service charities do this work at no cost.