The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said it is to lead the development of a digital service for armed forces veterans to claim the identity card for their status.
This marks the second phase of a project that has seen military service personnel issued with a card as part of their discharge process.
The new phase will make it possible for those who left before the original baseline date of December 2018 to apply online for a veteran card. It will also apply to any veterans who have lost their cards.
The Office for Veterans’ Affairs has already completed discovery and alpha phases, and the MoD said that it will now work with Defence Digital and the Government Digital Service on developing a verification service to support applications.
Features of service
It will incorporate: online applications through GOV.UK; identity checks using the GOV.UK One Login service; automated service checking to confirm veteran status for most applications using MoD service records databases; and increasing the ministry’s secure card printing capacity to deal with expected applications using a new machine.
The enables veterans to quickly prove their status when required to get support from government, charities, local authorities and other organisations.
Roll out will take place in phases according to service years to manage the expected volume of requests from the 1.8 million veterans in the UK.
Testing has now begun and the MoD said it expects the cards to become available to veterans later this year.
A paper based application process will also be made available for those unable to use the online service.
