British surgeons and nurses work last year on a casualty with gunshot wounds in Helmand province, Afghanistan, at the joint forces field hospital in Camp Bastion. (Reuters/Steve Lewis)The British government is facing heavy criticism for trying to reclaim some of the compensation awarded to two injured soldiers at a time when the country's troops are sustaining heavy losses in Afghanistan.

On a day when church bells across Britain chimed for the repatriation of four more soldiers killed in Afghanistan, lawyers for the government were in a London court arguing in favour of rolling back the compensation paid to two troops injured in the line of duty.

The British defence ministry is appealing the cases of the soldiers who were initially awarded compensation for their injuries and successfully argued for more money for complications that arose during their treatment.

One, who was shot while serving in Iraq, received around $94,000 Cdn. The other broke his leg in a training exercise and received around $59,000 Cdn.

But the ministry wants some of that money back, arguing it is only required to pay service members for their initial injuries, not for other problems that may arise later.

It comes a day after two more soldiers were killed in Helmand province on Monday, bringing the total number of British military fatalities since operations began in Afghanistan in 2001 to 191.

Former soldiers in disbelief

The government's timing has stunned some former soldiers, including Simon Weston, who suffered severe burns in the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina.

Falklands war veteran Simon Weston was injured when his ship was bombed during the 1982 Falklands conflict. (Reuters/Dylan Martinez)Weston said many of those injured in the line of duty will never work again or will be forced to contend with problems for the rest of their lives.

"They send young men to do a terrible job, young men and women, and they have to pay the bill at the end of it — it's as simple as that," Weston told CBC News.

"And if they say there's only a finite pot, make the pot bigger."

The task of defending the government's position on Tuesday fell to Defence Minister Kevan Jones, who said the current Labour government has always treated the troops fairly and recently doubled the maximum amount a wounded soldier can receive.

The ministry, Jones said, has only gone to court to seek clarity about what it owes injured soldiers and bring "fairness" to the scheme.

He said the government's program for wounded soldiers gives the most compensation to the most severely injured.

"This government has put in place a scheme which is far better than the one that was there before," Jones said.

But Conservative MP James Arbuthnot, who chairs a parliamentary defence committee, warned the government's appeal "sends all the wrong messages" to those considering joining the military.