ACW, read BrianWs post above. The SSRD have retained audiology in_house.
Your difficulty will be to get agreement that you have noise induced hearing loss and not age induced.
The Veterans Agency will try and assess any loss at below 20%, I got a grant 17 years ago of £4.5k with 15%.
A friend ex lightning got nothing.
As Tuc said, the litigation clock started in 1996. Actually I know people who got more cash earlier than that.
In the 60s we were actively ordered not to wear ear defenders as we could not hear shouted warnings. In the 70s there were trials to replace lightweight headsets that only carried the earphone with noise reducing one's. In the 80s we had these but they were only used in the aircraft. In the 90s paranoia and you wear them on the apron.
If you didn't have any, tough. At Coningsby, going between the WOC and Ops you were in a concrete chasm that amplified jet noise but no ear defenders.
Truth be it known, but my problem probably originated at school when firing a 303 in a quarry.