Statistics:
According to the Office for Veterans Affairs, the UK government defines anyone who has spent at least one day in military service as a UK military veteran OVA (2020). The Ministry of Defence, cited by Stevelink et al. (2018) states there are more than 19000 regular service personnel leaving the UK armed forces each year. The Royal British Legion, Household Survey in 2014, found that there were between 6.1 to 6.2 million members of the population that were part of the ex-services, veteran community. 2.8 million (4.4% of the population) Identified as veterans themselves and there were 1 million dependent children and 2.1 million dependent adults. 64% were over 65 years of age and almost half of these were over the age of 75 (RBL, 2014). In figures released by the Ministry of Defence of a survey conducted in 2017, it was estimated there were 2.4 million UK Armed Forces Veterans in Great Britain. The majority were male (89%), predominantly white (99%), and 60% were aged 65 and over (MOD, 2019). The high numbers of ageing veterans are due to the large numbers of those who served in World War two and completed post-war National Service. There will be more substantial data about the current number of veterans in the UK when the results of the national census 2021 are released. In this census, the question was asked for the first time if a person had served in the military. According to the Office of National Statistics, the results will be released in October 2022 (ONS, 2022). However, in an article published by the MOD, these figures are expected to change as the older members of the veteran community pass away and are expected to reduce by 1 million to 1.6 million by 2028 the percentage of working age will increase from 38% to 44% and the percentage of female veterans will increase from 10% to 13% (MOD, 2019).