That is not what happened with me.
I can remember exactly but it was an award of, say £4,500. I was then reassessed at 20% as you say, but as it was more than 3 years after the initial award there was no 'mark time'. Had it been after a year then the pension payment would have been deferred until year 3.

Two points AFAIR, you must submit your application within 6 months of receiving the application forms. Any award is backdated to the date of submission. It is not quick, my present application was submitted before Christmas.
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Thank You ORAC

I contacted the Veterans Hearing Help. I contacted them yesterday and received the application pack today. From their website:

Samantha and Ben Bennett began the UK Veterans Hearing Help in response to Ben's subsequent hearing loss from his 13 years in the Royal Artillery. When Ben at 43 years of age started to struggle with the volume of the TV, and in groups of people, Sam, who was already a Hearing Aid Audiologist with their children (also Audiologists) diagnosed Ben with a high-frequency hearing loss which affected his clarity. They quite quickly fitted Ben with hearing aids with the support of a manufacturer and when Sam and Ben went to the next reunion, a lot of Bens’ colleagues commented on his hearing aids and their issues.

I think they oversee your application to the RBL Veterans Hearing Fund. The service is free to us and they probably cost their costs from the profit margin on the hearing aids.

The RBL VHF is funded with £13m from Libor Scandal. It is drawn down over 5 years. In two years over 1,000 veterans have received help. That £13m will not last more than the 5 years at that rate.

Apparently the process is slow and can take a year.

'The acoustic attenuation of the Mk4 flying helmet...' Royal Aircraft Establishment Technical Memorandum FS171 HMSO 1978. (GM Rood - Dr Graham Rood).

Rood's Tech Memo is available in the National Archives https://discovery.nationalarchives.g...ls/r/C13521897

Early sixties, umm. Aircraftprep at Lyneham, as I have said elsewhere if eardefenders existed at all they were a plastic shell will a tiny piece of foam glued inside the body and fitted with pads filled with glycerine which leaked almost as soon as you wore them dribbling down the neck which was uncomfortable and cold.
Engine runs on Comet twos created a "blue note" and as a very junior radar mec on the shift it always fell to me to man the fire bottles so lots of noise there. And then Hunter avpin starts, like a lot of you the list is endless.

Mk4 helmet passive attenuation

https://i214.photobucket.com/albums/...pssttw9m0w.jpg


Try asking MoD for the noise measurement reports of each aircraft/environment that were carried out many yonks ago. Depending on the Trainer/Simulator, you should always remember take into account hours there, as many are designed to reproduce aircraft noise.

My advice would be to speak to QinetiQ at Farnborough. They hold all MoD data. 01252 395496. Ask for the Human Acoustics Technical Leader. She's brilliant.

Veterans Hearing Update
 

I had contacted them on 14th May and was warned it was a slow process and could take a year. I contacted the Veterans' Agency for a copy of my original award and was told they were very busy and it could take some time.

Yesterday I was contacted and have an appointment on 4 June.

If you wear hearing aids, you are eligible for a Disabled Persons Railcard; apply through the Railcard website. You need to provide proof of necessity for hearing aids (issue from NHS or private purchase receipt). Mine saves me around 30% on fares. Go for it!

And your carer too.

They do not need their own card.

Not just that Beagle, but in my case firing 303 rifles at South Cerney.

With that ineffective cotton wool.

Personally I think our school full bore range in a quarry didn't help.

Probably worse was our school's indoor .22 range, where the crack of several .22 Martini or Lee-Enfields being fired simultaneously echoed around the concrete walls...

At least at a full-bore range, the sound dissipated quicker.

Surely virtually every member of the armed forces could claim as they all would have heard shooting.
Gentlefolk let me ask you - how do you think tank crews and artillery men would have responded to the question?

Blossy true the issue is proving it.
As aircrew had to undergo an annual medical their healthy was monitored more closely than non aircrew. As flying pay depended on maintenance of one's medical category aircrew did whatever they could to avoid the witch doctor. However once the inevitable occurred your condition was recorded, assessed, and monitored regularly.

I was naturally upset at being downgraded to A2. However on one particular sortie my colleague, ex-Shacks even, could hear chatter on one of the VHF Channels which no one else on the crew could hear. Volume controls worked most of the time but that proved I had significant hearing loss.

Noise damage applied not just to aircrew or engineers but to people near the aircraft noise. Workers near aircraft operations needed hearing protection too but never got it. I suspect many never knew they had noise induced hearing loss and were eligible for help.

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I remember being told, by a Regiment Cpl., that if I kept my mouth open when firing the SMLE, it would equalise the pressure and prevent hearing damage.