About the Legion
- The Royal British Legion is the
leading ex-Service charity protecting the welfare, interests
and memory of ex-Service people and their families and
dependants.
- The Legion was founded in 1921.
- Some 10.5 million people in the UK
are eligible to ask for its help.
- The Legion is the UK's largest
membership organisation, with more than 460,000 members
(including the Women's Section). Anyone can be a member,
ex-Service or not.
- You don't have to be a Legion
member to receive assistance – but you must be an
ex-Serviceperson or a dependant. Anyone who has been in the
British Armed Forced for seven days or more (and their
dependants) is eligible for help.
- People as young as 17.5 years can
be sent on active service, so veterans are often much
younger than people realise.
- There has only been one
year (1968) since the Second World War when a British
Service person hasn't been killed on active service.
- Each year the Legion answers
30,000 calls for help to its helpline, Legionline.
- It helps with a huge range of
issues, including counselling, job retraining, skills
assessment, getting the right pensions and benefits, advice
and interest free loans for setting up small businesses,
welfare grants, Remembrance Travel to war graves,
convalescent and nursing care, and home and hospital visits.
- The Legion has close links to many
other charities, organisations and trusts, enabling it to
draw on the best resources and expertise, and to refer
people to those best equipped to help them.
- The Legion will be needed for as
long as people continue to be affected by conflict. It
doesn't advocate war but is simply there to support those
who have been prepared to make a personal sacrifice through
serving in the British Armed Forces.
- The Poppy Appeal raised over £26 million in 2006.
- In 2006 the
Legion spent over £75 million on its work. Apart from donations, funds come
from legacies, sponsorship, corporate support, fundraising
events.
- 70% of the workers at the Poppy
Factory are disabled or suffer from chronic illness. The
Factory was designed to offer jobs to such people and its
remit remains the same today.
- 300,000 staff and volunteers
organise the Poppy Appeal each year
- More than 36 million poppies,
107,000 wreaths and sprays, 800,000 Remembrance Crosses and
other Remembrance items will be made at the Poppy Factory in
Richmond , Surrey, this year.
| Poppies
Distributed |
36.5 m |
|
| Care home residents
|
410 |
per quarter |
| Welfare breaks |
4,200 |
Per Annum |
| War Pensions Cases
|
3711 |
per quarter |
| Cases represented at War
Pensions Tribunals |
500 |
per quarter |
| Almonising Income |
£10.2m |
|
| People in Employment through
RBL |
3,000 |
|
| Trained Case Workers
|
4349 |
|
| Welfare Visits and request for
assistance |
300,000 |
|
| Visitors to War Cemeteries
|
1,081 |
|
| School Children's Visits to
War Cemeteries |
259 |
|
| Army Recruits' Visits to War
Cemeteries |
1804 |
per quarter |
| Small Business Loans
|
£44,200 |
this quarter |
| Careers Advice |
1,300 |
Requests |
| London Taxi Driver Training
|
10 |
Passes of the Knowledge
|
|
|
There
are six key areas where assistance cannot be authorised, even though we
understand that these issues can cause genuine hardship. We cannot help
with:
