The New Front line: Voices of Veterans in Need

Summary: SSAFA commissioned the research, on which this
report is based, from Compass Partnership in order to understand better the specific needs of this cohort and identify emerging trends.
The results will be used to help ensure SSAFA’s services are relevant and responsive to their needs and are achieving tangible outcomes.
This document has been written by SSAFA and summarises the headline results from qualitative and quantitative research Compass Partnership carried out with 1,192 SSAFA beneficiaries aged
16-64 in 2014-15. To have qualified for assistance they are amongst the most vulnerable in the veteran community. The 967 working-age veterans and 225 dependants who responded answered a selfcompletion questionnaire about their welfare needs and SSAFA’s support. This summary report focuses solely on the responses from SSAFA working-age veterans (referred to in the report as ‘SSAFA veterans’), although SSAFA remains fully committed to helping their dependants too. Then more detailed qualitative follow-up
telephone interviews were conducted with 20 of the survey respondents, who were all veterans under the age of 45, to understand more about their background and experiences. Some of
these were re-interviewed subsequently. Their stories are interspersed throughout this report and, in some cases, names have been changed to preserve their anonymity.