Money will provide daily meals and cash transfers to 7,000 world war two veterans and widows, says Penny Mordaunt

Aid funding of £12m will be used to help thousands of impoverished war veterans who served with the British military across the Commonwealth, Penny Mordaunt has announced.

The minister for international development said the cash would be used to provide two meals a day and regular cash transfers to 7,000 veterans and war widows who served in the British armed forces.

The programme will run in more than 30 countries, including India, Kenya and Zimbabwe, where some veterans and war widows are struggling to afford the equivalent of one meal a day.

The announcement, by the Department for International Development, follows concern over the plight of hundreds of Commonwealth veterans, some of whom are in their 90s, living in poverty in Zimbabwe.

“We owe a tremendous amount to these Commonwealth veterans. The British public would be shocked to know that those who have served alongside our armed forces would be living in such poverty,” Mordaunt said.

“It is absolutely right to make this commitment. I think the British public would approve of us pledging this support because of the sacrifices the Commonwealth veterans have made and because of the debt of gratitude we owe to them.”

The announcement comes ahead of Armistice Day commemorations on Sunday. About 4,500 veterans and 2,500 widows will receive cash transfers through the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League (RCEL).

The league’s deputy grand president, Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, a former chief of defence staff, said: “We owe a great debt to the service men and women of the Commonwealth who served in the British Armed Forces in the second world wWar and afterwards prior to their countries’ independence.

UK pledges £2.1m to save Asian tigers and African chimpanzees Read more

“This grant will help the RCEL ensure that these brave men and women are sustained and cared for in their twilight years. As important, it will let them know that they have not been forgotten and their service and sacrifice is remembered.”

Among those who will benefit from the initiative are Boto Marong, 99, from Gambia who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Burma between 1942 and 1947, and Sepoy Penhungo Egung, from Nagaland, India, who fought in Kahima and Burma during the second world war.

However, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sets the rules for global aid spending, cautioned against upsetting community dynamics following DfID’s announcement.

The OECD said it would not decide on whether the cash is eligible to count as overseas development assistance until next year, when the UK reports its 2018 flows.

Yasmin Ahmad, head of aid statistics at the organisation, said: “Certainly, given that these funds will be provided to people living in poverty in Commonwealth developing countries, they could fall within the ODA definition.”

But she questioned why the support was for veterans of UK armed forces and not all veterans living below the poverty line, and said the contributions would need to be made in a “sensitive way”, for instance if certain war veterans were offered support and their neighbours were not.

An estimated 4.5 million Commonwealth soldiers from the Indian sub-continent, Africa and the Caribbean fought in the British armyduring the second world war. Of the 14,000 veterans who survive, half are now living in poverty.