Both soldiers were injured within a month of each other in Iraq

Former Lance Corporal Mark Keegan, from Gravesend, and Private Kevin Challis, from Canterbury, were both severely injured in southern Iraq in 2004.

Both were serving with the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment and have been offered cash sums or a war pension, which they describe as paltry.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was improving its compensation scheme.

Both men are no longer in service but said they had been forced to live with friends or relatives to make ends meet.

Now I've come out of Iraq, and been injured, I just feel like I've been dumped on Kevin Challis

They said they had been left traumatised and struggling to get state support and compensation.

Mr Challis has so far received one compensation payment of �1,100, and has been told he will be paid �50 a week.

"Now I've come out of Iraq, and been injured, I just feel like I've been dumped on. There's no way you're going to live off �200," he said.

His friend Mark Keegan saved his life in the ambush in Iraq, but nearly lost his own just a month later in a grenade explosion.

"I got a payout of �2,144. I'm having to live off my girlfriend's wages now - she only works in a nursery," he said.

The MoD said it would not comment on individual cases, but explained that it took the health and welfare of both serving personnel and veterans extremely seriously.

It said soldiers injured since early 2005 now got compensation payments almost immediately.