AFCS statistics 2025/26: claims now take a median 126 working days, the fourth rise in a row

What MOD published

Defence Statistics Health, part of MOD, published its annual AFCS bulletin and supplementary tables on gov.uk on 15 October 2026, covering 6 April 2005 to 31 March 2026. The series counts every claim for injury, illness or death caused by service on or after 6 April 2005. Claims for earlier service go to the War Pension Scheme and are counted separately.

The 2024/25 claim counts are MOD's revised figures from this year's tables. The 2024/25 waiting figure comes from last year's bulletin, published in July 2025.

How long an AFCS claim takes now

MOD measures clearance time in working days, from the day it receives a claim to the day it sends the decision letter. Weekends and public holidays are left out. The figures are medians, so half of claims took less time and half took longer.

MOD puts the 2025/26 medians at within six months for an injury or illness claim, five months for a reconsideration, and 13 months for a survivors' claim or an appeal.

The typical first decision slowed by only four working days this year, but it has risen every year since 2021/22. The spread narrowed: one claim in four took longer than about 164 working days in 2025/26, against 183 in 2024/25.

This year's bulletin does not say why injury and illness claims are slower. Last year's put the rise down to a 54% increase in registered claims between 2021/22 and 2024/25, and to MOD's priority on clearing older cases and the backlog left by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Survivors' claims are few, so their median moves around from year to year. MOD says they can be held up while the outcome of an inquest is awaited, which in some cases takes several years.

More claims coming in, fewer going out

MOD registered 9,355 injury and illness claims in 2025/26, provisionally 16% more than the 8,096 of 2024/25. The biggest rise was in claims from people who had already left service: 2,431, up from 1,780. Claims made while serving rose from 5,985 to 6,733.

Fewer claims were decided. The supplementary tables count about 7,415 injury and illness claims cleared in 2025/26, down from about 8,870 the year before. So the queue grew: 6,110 claims were waiting on 31 March 2026, and 5,443 of them had been registered during the year. A further 79 survivors' claims were waiting.

If your claim is refused

Refusals are common. Of the 136,818 injury and illness claims cleared since 2005, 41,932 were rejected because the condition was not found to be caused by service. That is about 31%. The bulletin's text says 39%, but its own counts and supplementary Table 2 give 31%. MOD also notes that in recent years the share of claims receiving an award has fallen and the share rejected has risen.

The first step is a reconsideration, asked for in writing within 12 months of the decision. In 2025/26 the median reconsideration took 104 working days. If that does not resolve it, the next step is an appeal to an independent tribunal, which took a median 279 working days. An appeal needs a reconsideration to have been decided first, and MOD registers one automatically if an appeal arrives without it.

Appeals are still the slowest step, but they are much quicker than in 2021/22, when the median was 458 working days. Our how to claim guide covers both steps.

Which conditions lead to a Guaranteed Income Payment

A Guaranteed Income Payment is paid for life on the more serious awards, at tariff levels 1 to 11, to recognise lost earning capacity. It is the part of an award that keeps paying, and the statistics show which conditions lead to one.

Those are totals since 2005. Put another way, 2,605 of the 7,240 mental disorder awards carried a GIP, against 955 of the 49,265 musculoskeletal awards. MOD says the gap reflects the often long term effect of mental disorders on a person's ability to work and earn. Of the 2,605, 2,110 included a claim for PTSD, which our AFCS PTSD compensation guide covers.

Musculoskeletal disorders dominate the newest awards: 64% of the 2,230 conditions awarded on claims both registered and decided in 2025/26, followed by fractures and dislocations (22%) and injury, wounds and scarring (5%). These are provisional, and MOD says the 2025/26 shares are likely to change as pending claims are cleared.

On 31 March 2026, 5,443 veterans were receiving a GIP, up from 5,099 a year earlier, and the number has risen every year. Nearly two in three of them (3,415) were in the 30% band, at tariff levels 9 to 11. Another 303 GIPs had been awarded to people still serving, and start when they leave.

What the scheme paid out

Lump sums and GIPs together, the injury and illness spend, came to £134.4M in 2025/26. GIP spending keeps climbing because each year's new awards are added to those already being paid for life. The 2025/26 accounts are pending audit. The figures are rounded to the nearest £100,000 and include awards made in the last days of the year but paid after it.

One trap if you compare the two bulletins: last year's headline gave £152.7M as injury and illness spending, but in the tables that is the total including survivors' payments. Like for like, injury and illness spending was £137.9M in 2024/25.

What this means if you are claiming now

• Plan for around six months to a first decision. The median in 2025/26 was 126 working days, which MOD puts at within six months, and one claim in four took more than about 164 working days.
• Do not wait for the queue to shorten. The normal time limit is 7 years from the earliest of the incident, service making a condition worse, first seeking medical advice for an illness, or discharge. A later claim joins the same queue.
• Answer evidence requests quickly. Veterans UK gives you 3 months to send further evidence it asks for, or the claim is closed.
• If you are refused, start with a reconsideration within 12 months. It is quicker than an appeal, and an appeal needs one first.
• Allow up to 20 working days for payment once a decision is made.
• You do not need a paid representative. Veterans Services and service charities help with the claim for free.