Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been paid to Bradford services personnel as compensation for injuries or illnesses sustained on duty.

The Ministry of Defence has awarded compensation to 15 soldiers with Bradford addresses since April, 2005, for injuries including amputations, burns, mental disorders, fractures and dislocations and muscoskeletal disorders.

The figures, obtained by the Telegraph & Argus under the Freedom of Information Act, has revealed amounts from £1,200 to £328,200 have been awarded to troops since the start of the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces Compensation Scheme in 2005.

Former soldier Carl Clowes, 25, of Thackley, who had a leg amputated after he was in a roadside blast while serving in Afghanistan in 2007, was left frustrated by a two-year wait for compensation. Mr Clowes initially received £100,000 for his three most serious injuries, but last year he received the full compensation.

He said the compensation was a vital part of getting his life back on track.

He said: “Obviously some people can’t work again from their injuries, so if they didn’t get a substantial amount of money then what can they do?

“Obviously they want to live as best they can on their own without the support of others, so obviously money is a big thing.

“The pensions have gone up as well, which needed to happen. They weren’t big enough before.

“I can’t work all the time because of my injuries – my right leg won’t allow me to work. I just work sometimes on a part-time basis as a coach driver.”

Mr Clowes pointed out that some of the compensation payments could have been paid out for injuries sustained during training, or even playing sport – not necessarily through combat.

The MoD has said the average for the 15 payments made to individuals with a contact address in Bradford was £6,000.

The scheme came into force on April 6, 2005, to pay for injury, illness or death caused by service on or after that date.

The scheme was brought in to replace the previous compensation arrangements provided by the War Pension Scheme and the attributable elements of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme.

Information provided by the MoD has also revealed that as of March 31, 2011 – the latest date for which War Pensions data was available – a total of 90 individuals in Bradford were in receipt of an ongoing war pension awarded under the WPS for an injury or illness attributable to service.

The monthly amount paid in ongoing pensions to these individuals ranged from £108 to £2,227, with the average at £191.

James Hargreaves, welfare secretary at the Bradford branch of the Royal British Legion, said: “It doesn’t always cover everything, but it is a start if they live a good life and a proper life with it.

“It’s a start to making a life for themselves.

“It’s a very complicated situation because you give somebody half a million pounds and that’s it. You think they will be all right for the rest of their lives.

“But at the back of this there’s always the ex-service organisations like the Royal British Legion to help, because we have a duty of care to help all these people, and it’s there all the time.”

e-mail: james.rush @telegraphandargus.co.uk