How long does a military hearing loss claim take?

There is no single answer to this, because there is no single claim. Someone who lost their hearing to gunfire, aircraft or armoured vehicles may have two separate routes open to them, running on different timetables, decided by different bodies, on different tests.

They are not alternatives. Understanding which is which is the first useful thing to do.

The two routes

The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme

AFCS covers injury and illness caused by service on or after 6 April 2005. It is a no-fault scheme run by Veterans UK: you do not have to prove anyone was negligent, only that service caused or worsened the condition. Awards are made against a published tariff.

For injuries and illness before 6 April 2005, the War Pension Scheme applies instead. Noise damage accumulated over a long career can straddle both, which is one of the reasons service records matter so much.

A civil claim against the Ministry of Defence

This is an ordinary negligence claim. It asks whether the MOD failed to take reasonable care — whether hearing protection was provided, whether it was suitable for the noise levels involved, whether you were trained to use it, whether your hearing was monitored as it should have been.

A civil claim is harder to prove than an AFCS application, because fault has to be established. It is also not capped by a tariff.

An AFCS award does not stop you bringing a civil claim, though any AFCS payment is generally taken into account so that the same loss is not compensated twice. Getting advice before accepting an award is sensible.

Realistic timescales

For an AFCS claim, Veterans UK publishes its own clearance times and they move. A straightforward hearing loss claim with complete service medical records is usually decided in a matter of months. Claims needing further medical evidence, or where records are incomplete, take longer.

A civil claim against the MOD is a different order of thing. Realistically:

• Months 1–3. Service records and medical records obtained, audiology arranged, the pattern of your hearing loss assessed against your noise exposure history.
• Months 3–9. Letter of claim, and the MOD’s response on liability. This stage is where most of the variation lives.
• Months 9–18. If liability is accepted, evidence on the effect of the injury on your life and earnings, then negotiation.
• Beyond 18 months. Where liability is denied, or where the extent of the loss is disputed, proceedings may be issued. Most claims still settle without a hearing.

Anyone who gives you a firmer figure than that at the outset is guessing.

What makes a claim take longer

• Incomplete service records. The single most common cause of delay. Records from long careers, or from units that reorganised, can take time to retrieve.
• Age-related hearing loss. Everyone’s hearing declines with age. The medical evidence has to separate the part attributable to noise from the part attributable to time, and that is a question experts can legitimately disagree on.
• Civilian noise exposure. Motorbikes, shooting, music, a later job in construction. It does not defeat a claim, but it has to be accounted for.
• A condition that is still changing. Settling before your hearing has stabilised risks under-compensating you permanently.

Time limits

For a civil claim, the ordinary three-year limitation period applies, running from the date you knew your hearing loss was linked to service — usually the date an audiologist or GP told you so, not the date you first noticed it.

AFCS has its own time limit, which is generally seven years from the date of injury or from when you first sought medical help for it, with exceptions for late-onset illness. The rules differ from the civil test, so being out of time for one does not necessarily mean you are out of time for the other.

Because the two schemes measure time differently, a veteran who has been told they are too late for one is not necessarily too late for the other. That is worth checking rather than assuming.

What to gather now

• Your service record, and your service medical records including any audiograms taken on enlistment and discharge.
• Which roles, weapons, aircraft or vehicles you were exposed to, and roughly for how long.
• What hearing protection you were issued, if any, and whether you were trained to use it.
• Any current audiology or GP correspondence about your hearing or tinnitus.

You do not need all of it before speaking to a solicitor. We can obtain records on your behalf, and often the first useful thing we do is get the audiograms that tell us whether there is a claim worth bringing at all.