Chloe Marshall receives RBL funding for squash coaching

The Royal British Legion, which has begun its annual Poppy Appeal, said it now spends 80% more in aiding people across the county and Buckinghamshire.

However, the Ministry of Defence said the number of approaches for help it got from veterans remained consistent.

The MoD classes a veteran as anyone who has provided a day of service.

The RBL provides various grants and welfare support for veterans' housing and housing costs, careers advice and training and resettlement support.

Craig Treeby, field officer for the Royal British Legion (RBL), said over the last two years the number of cases the charity had received for assistance in the two counties had risen by 60%.

Coaching lessons

I went to a homeless shelter in Oxford and 40% were ex-services Craig Treeby

Mr Treeby said: "We currently have 190-200 cases on the go, and when I started here three years ago there would be 65 on the go at any one time.

"We're dealing with more and more young people, and quite a lot with people who have just left the services and possibly haven't had the resettlement they needed."

"I went to a homeless shelter in Oxford and 40% were ex-services," Mr Treeby said.

In Oxfordshire, Chloe Marshall, whose father served in the Gulf War, has been given funding from the Royal British Legion to pay for squash coaching.

The 16-year-old, from Milton-Under-Wychwood, has represented England at under-17 level.

Chloe told BBC News: "It's paying for my coaching lessons and it's letting me have them more often.

"Also I've been playing abroad in tournaments so I've been going to Germany and also I'm going to Switzerland at the end of the year."

Left hung to dry

The MoD's Veterans Agency, which administers MoD war pensions, also provides a helpline, which redirects some appeals for support due to disabilities, pensions and welfare to local authorities and more than 400 ex-service organisations.

David Johnson, of the Veterans Agency, told BBC News: "We get involved in help and services - we have expanded the services to be more wide reaching."

The Veterans Agency receives around 330,000 to its national helpline every year.