... To ask why some of you are against the charity "Help for Hereos" ?

[Sheitgeist]

Just noticed this on another thread. What is the problem? My son has just joined the armed forces, so am particularly interested.
Thanks

I have nothing against the charity, just like I have nothing against, say, the cats protection league charity. I just think there are hundreds of charities that are far more worthwhile.

Don't they do the same as the British Legion? Sorry, there's so many charities which do exactly the same thing it gets confusing.

I don't support them for the reasons Meditrina has set out. As a family we do a lot for/with the RBL and SSAFA, both of whom are there to support all serving and ex service people, not just those from recent conflicts.

Because it's so heavily administrated, only 9p in every pound goes to those in need. Yes, 9p...

I think they are jingoistic and I'm v uncomfortable with this fetishism of the military that's an increasing aspect of British public discourse.

I think perception is that H4H exist to support the armed forces community when in reality they only fund projects which support those injured after 9/11. That's a small cohort of people and a massive amount of money sitting in their account

H4H are a fundraising charity so I give to charities whose remit is wide welfare, such as SSAFA as mentioned upthread.

I have a friend who is the wife of an injured serviceman. They do a lot of charity fundraising activities. Initially the fundraising was for help for heroes but after looking at the way that they operate and where the money goes, they have chosen to concentrate on fundraising for other charities, mostly for ABF the soldiers charity. It made me think about any donations I make to charity - what is the money actually used for? Maybe this is why many people have such an issue with Help for Heroes.

I don't donate to H4H, as others have said, as a charity it has massive reserves which it has over recent years struggled to spend due to it's quite restrictive declared aims. I do however give to other charities with a link to supporting ex armed forces personnel.

I just wanted to say that not all people serving in the military knew - at all - what they were getting in to. The military has changed a lot in the last decade and is now understaffed, under supported, poorly provisioned, politically changeable and in general in a poor place to look after its people. That is not the military many people joined, and now on top of that,pensions are being cut and terms changed.

I do however agree that signing up is very different than conscription.

My DH is military. His opinion is that H4H does great work, but they have become so popular that the government doesn't have to provide the support it really ought to, and use that as a reason not to support the excellent charities which pre-date H4H. It's not a charity we choose to support, but it's not wrong to support it and they have done a lot to raise the profile of those in the armed services.

I think it's a worthwhile charity and have given to it in the past as I have family members in the forces whose immediate family do a lot of work for them.

My understanding is that many don't support it because it has been somewhat hijacked by Britain Frist/BNP type agendas. I'm not saying the charity supports then but that those organisations use HFH as propaganda.

The majority of the money raised through H4Hs trading arm, so all the merchandise, goes to paying the running costs of the charity. It's only about 10% that's used for charitable purposes.

Considering the civilian body count in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the bloody awful mess that our involvement has left behind, it's pretty difficult for me to apply the word 'heroic' to the participants tbh. So l prefer to give to less jingoistic charities.

I do however fully support the principle that the government/tax payer should properly support those injured in its service. And their families, of course.

Don't they do the same as the British Legion?

No, they don't. The RBL help people who have served, those who are still serving and the families of both. You don't have to be injured to qualify for help from RBL either.

The state should be responsible for injured military personnel.
Simple as that.

It is shameful that more that 9,000 service personnel are homeless since leaving the forces. There are countless charities trying to pick up the pieces when the responsibility lies solely with the Govt.

@Stormingateacup

The dead of the first and second world wars were conscripts, modern soldiers choose to join the military - it's a job they want to do.

Because in the 21st century war is completely unnecessary and in fact the last two 'wars' weren't wars at all, they were invasions- one of which was illegal. They're not heroes, they choose their job and they know all the risks involved. Their eyes are open. The soldiers of the world wars were heroes, they had no choice.

I don't support war or the military therefore am not going to donate to charities that essentially do. Funding should come from the government, they're the morons that send them to their deaths.

Conscription didn't begin until 1916, WW1 began in 1914.

Not all members of the military in the First and Second World Wars were conscripts, some signed up voluntarily. If people didn't join voluntarily now, we'd go back to conscripts.

It might be wrong but I read something which said very little money raised actually went to the service men and women or ex service men and women and majority went to wages and admin. Put me off donating.

Just to point out that I don't agree with the tenet that soldier = hero automatically. As an ex serviceman I have known some truly awful people that frankly I wouldn't trust behind me with a service weapon.

However, just remember that if people didn't choose to fight, there may well be conscription in this country.

What I do know about Help for Heroes is that when they were chosen as one of two causes to support at a local event, they got very difficult about having to share the money raised by a street collection. So we dropped them in favour of the second chosen cause, a local hospice.

I've never been keen on them since.

While working roadside at the London marathon a couple of years ago ( for a tiny charity who had 3 volunteers forming a cheering team) i was pushed aside by a large group of hfh supporters. When I asked them to becauselittle more thoughtful and share nicely, i was sworn at and pushed out even more. I really didn't like their attitude.

To be quite honest I'm against most big charities. The one I volunteer for is run solely by volunteers and 100% of the money goes to the disabled children.

100%

When you donate you aren't paying my wages, you are directly helping the children.

That's what charity should be about.

It's taken funding away from other less fashionable but equally as important charities aimed to help serving and ex serving service men and women.

Neither of my Grandparents were conscripts, both fought in the second world war.

I would like HTH to fund psychological help for ex soldiers stick in prison who desperately need the help and the support, but it isn't obvious enough for them.