Denmark delays PTSD compensation reform for veterans

A promised law to simplify PTSD compensation claims for around 400 Danish veterans remains unfinished, leaving many in limbo despite political pledges made in late 2024.

In November 2024, a cross-party agreement in the Folketing (Danish parliament) committed to easing the process for veterans to have PTSD recognized as a work-related injury. The deal stipulated that a psychiatrist’s diagnosis linking PTSD to military service should be presumed valid unless strong evidence contradicted it. Veterans with rejected claims, including those from deployments in the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan, were to have their cases reopened this year.

But the legislation has yet to be introduced. Torsten Elkjær Andersen, known among veterans as “Kokamok” for his cooking during Kosovo deployments, has received three rejections for PTSD compensation despite diagnoses from multiple psychiatric specialists. Now 55, a retired pensioner, he lives in a veterans’ home near the North Sea, unable to tolerate the noise of Copenhagen’s Nørrebro district.

“I feel like the state’s trash,” he said. “You lose trust in people and the system. It’s terrible for those of us waiting for recognition.”

Veteran organizations have sharply criticized the delay. Carsten Rasmussen, national chairman of Danmarks Veteraner og Veteranstøtten, called it an erosion of trust in the political system. “There are plenty of good intentions, but they haven’t been turned into action,” he said.

Claus Stenberg of Veteranalliancen noted that former defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen (V) had promised the reform on Veterans’ Day, a date he called “the holiest.” “You shouldn’t promise something we’ve been asking for for years, then act like other things are more important,” Stenberg said.

Poulsen, now out of office, declined an interview but wrote in an email that the early election called by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen derailed the bill’s introduction. He expressed frustration that the new government’s platform omitted both veterans and the presumption rule.

Current defence minister Jeppe Bruus (S) also declined an interview but stated the law would be proposed in autumn. “I understand the veterans’ impatience,” he wrote, acknowledging the delay. “As a society, we haven’t been good enough at recognizing those who developed PTSD from their deployments.”

Kokamok, who served three years in Bosnia under fire and once had a gun held to his head, hopes the law will eventually pass. Compensation, he said, would bring financial relief and validation: “It would mean my family and friends could accept that yes, you got sick from those three missions—not because you sat wrong on the toilet as a child.”