The Unforgotten Forces Project Final Report: An Evaluation of Support for Older Veterans in Scotland

Abstract: This is a summary of the final report on the experiences of older – over the age of 65 - exservicemen and women and service providers for the Poppyscotland-led Unforgotten Forces (UF) project. In 2014 Poppyscotland identified that there were approximately 280,000 Scottish older veterans (including their dependants), with the average age of the older veterans being 67 years 1, and that there was a need for improvement in their well-being. Similarly significant numbers of older veterans were also recorded by the Ministry of Defence for 2017: 2.4 million UK Armed Forces veterans in the UK, the majority of them – over two-thirds - aged 65 years and older, male, white and either married or in a civil partnership, and between 6-8% of those veterans resided in Scotland (MoD, 2019) 2. Also, in that year, 2017, The Unforgotten Forces project, a 3-year funded project, was awarded £4 million from the MoD/LIBOR Aged Veterans Fund.