MoD Denies Injured Troops' Jobs 'At Risk'

The Ministry of Defence has denied reports that wounded service personnel were at risk of redundancy under defence cuts.

According to a leaked memo seen by The Daily Telegraph, troops wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq could be among thousands of soldiers facing the axe.

Injured personnel were exempt from the first round of job losses earlier this year, but the memo suggests as many as 2,500 wounded soldiers, 350 of whom have lost a limb, could be made redundant as 16,500 personnel are axed by April 2015.

However, a spokesman for the MoD said in a statement: "The information in the leaked Army memo from a junior officer is incorrect.

"Beyond those already announced, there are no further Army reductions planned.

"There is absolutely no plan to change our treatment of service personnel who are wounded, injured or sick.

"Personnel injured on operations will not be included in the redundancy process while they are undergoing medical treatment.

"No one will leave the Armed Forces until they have reached a point in their recovery that is right for them."

The memo became public as the Government said it was planning to issue guidelines that former Armed Forces personnel should be moved to the top of waiting lists for social housing and assistance for first-time buyers.

About 2,000 soldiers have already lost their jobs due to spending cuts, but the MoD denied that any final decision had been taken on the scale of the next tranche of redundancies.

The leaked memo, which was reportedly sent to senior commanders in Afghanistan by a junior officer, was said to indicate 12,000 troops would be told in January that their jobs were at risk, with 2,300 of those to be made redundant.

Among those vulnerable to compulsory redundancy were members of the "rear operations group" of fully-trained personnel on standby to fill in for dead or wounded, it suggested.

Subsequent waves could add as many as 13,000 redundancies by April 2015.

"The total number of personnel selected for redundancy in T1-4 will be approximately 15.5k - 16.5k. All redundancy tranches are scheduled to be complete by Apr 15," The Daily Telegraph quoted the memo as saying.

Despite the MoD's emphatic denial of the information in the memo, shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said: "These are really worrying revelations.

"No one should be sacked because they are seriously injured while defending our country.

"The Government should be doing everything in its power to support people into new roles in the Forces, in the MoD or to a new career outside of defence.

"After all the changes to defence in the past year this would be the cruellest cut of all."

Last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review had revealed the Army wouldbe reduced by 7,000 soldiers by 2015, while the RAF would lose about 5,000 personnel.