Veterans' Affairs is in the firing line as New Zealand veterans claim the system is failing them.

"We offered our lives to the country ... and when I asked for something little back, they have almost told me to piss off," retired NZSAS corporal Gregg "Pup" Johnson tells The Detail.

Retired soldier Aaron Wood goes even further, saying "New Zealand is the worst country in the Western world in terms of its veteran support space. The worst. That's not hyperbole. We're not even providing a basic level of care at a functional level."

Johnson joined the Territorial Force in 1991, moving to the regular force two years later, and served operationally in Afghanistan and East Timor.

He was consistently subjected to explosions, which eventually caused him a brain injury - a condition sometimes called 'breacher's brain'.

But he says getting that brain injury recognised as a service-related condition has been "a long battle", and he's been forced to fight non-stop for the support he needs. The mental toll has been brutal.

"That just led me into a downward spiral ... that led to a pretty dark place," Johnson says. "The dark place was wanting to take my own life, because it was so hard on a couple of fronts.

"At the time, we didn't really understand it was brain injury, even though I'd been researching it for years at that point.

"As I've said to others, when you're in that dark hole, it's really hard to look around and see the evidence that's laid out in front of you.

"And it was hard trying to get help through Veterans' Affairs, the complete lack of understanding of my condition, and the fact it took almost two and a half years for them to accept I had an injury. That all played into it."

Johnson says Veterans' Affairs rejected "every single treatment recommendation" from his doctor, and his "traumatic brain injury through blast exposure" wasn't on the system's list.

"It was really hard to have a conversation with anyone there because I think they have zero understanding of what our people face day to day in operational service.

"I needed treatment. I needed an assessment that said 'this person is hurt, and he's been hurt through this mechanism'... and I still haven't received any treatment pathway from them at almost five years now."

That includes a claim which was accepted, relating to an injury after falling down a mountain in Afghanistan.

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"I required 20 staples in my head to close a wound, which was pretty severe at the time. They accepted this claim. But they didn't accept ... what people have termed breacher's brain."

Johnson says he and his partner have had to pay for his treatment.

"I get just over $1000 a week from Veterans' Affairs, and at the height of my medical bills I was paying about $2500 a week."

Retired soldier Aaron Wood claims he's now doing the job of Veterans' Affairs.

About 10 years ago he received a phone call "out of the blue" from the RSA asking him to find and support a veteran.

He quickly realised the veterans' affairs space "was in serious trouble", and it prompted him to co-found No Duff Charitable Trust.

"Why couldn't they do the job they were meant to be doing? It's literally a question I've asked again and again in the last 10 and a half years, and no one's ever given me an answer," Wood tells The Detail.

"And to compound that extraordinary set of circumstances, consider the fact we have New Zealand Defence Force, Ministry of Veterans' Affairs, Department of Corrections, New Zealand Police, the RNZRSA, RSAs themselves, all of these organisations, these government entities, PHOs, DHBs as they used to be, all of whom over the last 10 and a half years have referred veterans, their clients, to us to support.

"But they have provided very little, if anything at all, to support us, or resource us to do that job."

He says No Duff has helped more than 1000 veterans over the past decade "on the smell of an oily rag".

"We don't have staff members. We volunteer.

"Veterans' Affairs has an operating budget close to $100 million, with an uncapped budget for support.

"We've received about a million dollars in 10 and a half years. And less than a hundred thousand of that was from the government."

Wood is calling for another review of the Veterans' Support Act 2014 and a review of the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs from top to bottom. Is it fit for purpose? Does it provide the level of support that is required by veterans?

In response, head of Veterans' Affairs Alexander Brunt says: "Veterans' Affairs does not discuss individual veteran cases due to privacy obligations, but we do understand that service-related injuries have a significant impact on veterans and their whānau, and we will support them while proven treatment options for complex service-related medical conditions are found.

"Veterans' Affairs supports more than 12,000 veterans and their families.

"Veterans' Affairs deeply values the support that non-government organisations provide for New Zealand veterans."

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