Armed Forces Allowances Update

The Armed Forces (Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force) do give a number of allowances (despite what you hear about Armed Forces cuts etc).

There are specific lead allowances for service personnel assigned to seagoing units to compensate for the extra time spent away from home; Travel expenses can usually be claimed for duty journeys from a normal place of work for all the services; there is the Local Overseas Allowance (LOA) – Contributes to the additional costs of day-to-day living in an overseas county; Special Messing Allowance (SMA), and Overseas Furniture Provision Scheme (OFPS). These are only a few of them that are actually available.

There are many more allowances available and you'll find them here in our British Armed Forces Allowances section. Here's a few more:

General Allowances for Service Personnel

Travel Expenses In The Armed Forces
Travel and Subsistence when Living Overseas

Child Related Benefits In the Armed Forces

The links above take you to sections where you'll find articles explaining the different types of allowances open to you. However, in the previous 12 months there have been many changes.

This article describes some of those changes that directly affect the Armed Forces and their families.

As part of a comprehensive spending review, a direct consequence of 2010's Strategic Defence and Security Review, the changes all began end of 2010. It was announced that more than £250 million would be stripped from the armed forces' £880m allowances budget ordered by the Treasury.

Needless to say, the first to go, deemed too extraneous were perks for senior officers, such as payment for chefs and cleaners, drivers or gardeners.

Military personnel of all ranks have been asked to make personal financial contributions to allowances such as those which cover travelling from home to work.

Payments to cover travel to sports events and training facilities are also considered to be vulnerable to culling. Military travel allowances last year cost the government £54 million.

Defence chiefs accepted the cuts with regret but also claimed it could 'seriously damage troop morale'.

Some senior defence sources have criticised the move but others have welcomed it - our opinion is that the Armed Forces cannot be compared to MP's claiming expenses. However, cuts have to be made, and naturally expenses and perks are always the fist to be culled. This is replicated right across the private sector too. In fact some within the Armed Forces have claimed many officers are 'living beyond their means' and that the cuts will prevent fraudulent claims.

One issue however that has thrown up opposition is the examination and possible culling of the Continuity of Education Allowance, which helps pay for the private school fees. CEA costs the taxpayer £180m a year and is claimed by 5,500 service families.

As well as allowances, all forms of the armed forces specialist pay – which makes up a significant proportion of the salaries of pilots, comms crew, divers, bomb disposal experts, submariners and members of the special forces – is also to be examined and it looks like there will be inevitable cuts to these looking towards 2012. However, in our view the cuts cannot be too severe for specialist pay, as part of the remuneration for taking on extra duty and skills is the specialist pay rate in the first place. Take too much of that away and how can recruiters attract candidates into the specialist trades?

Qualified aeroplane and helicopter pilots, as well as specialist aircrew, can earn up to an extra £40 a day on top of their salaries even if their job does not involve flying.

Politicians argue that Pilots for example should only be paid the extra specialist pay when they are flying.

Under the current allowances scheme pilots are still paid the full "flying pay" for three years once they have left a "flying job". SDSR considers this too 'generous', the extra pay is worth millions of pounds to pilots who do not fly and submariners who no longer serve at sea. George Osbourne described this as 'staggering'.

Local Overseas Allowance, is paid to troops serving abroad where the cost of living is more expensive than the UK, will also be reduced (but the number of places that are more expensive than the UK are disappearing). In 2009/10 LOA cost the MoD £224m.

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When dealing with expenses you must pay up front and then claim back what is owed by providing a valid receipt. Otherwise, if you can't provide the receipt you'll get nothing.

There are still many good allowances available to the Armed Forces but in these unsettling economic times those perks are slowly disappearing. However, some essential perks will stay but don't let all this put you off, the Armed Forces still offers what many jobs in the private sector cannot.

War in Afghanistan: Comment

Following the tragic death of yet another young soldier in Afghanistan, the message to the Government must be what? To give up the apparently utterly futile conflict in Afghanistan and bring all British forces back home as quickly as possible? Or to dig ourselves in for yet another few more years before we pull out? After all we commited ourselves to aiding the Afghan people by removing terrorists (and inadvertently the Taliban) and traditionally, we are a stubborn lot, we like to see things through.

I wasn't born until the 1970's but as far as I know, during the previous 80 years the only time we've ever retreated with our pride damaged was at Dunkirk and during Suez. Every other conflict we've been involved in we've been a thorn in the side of the opposition.


Is that enough to remain? To maintain our prestige and in addition, more significantly, to preserve the memory of the fallen can only but strengthen our resolve to see this conflict to the bitter end. And despite the recent deaths, it is quickly coming to and end. The Taliban are in disarray themselves and have split several ways into rival factions. But whose propaganda can we believe?

Some would argue however, that this is a war which should never have been begun. Almost 400 British lives have been lost, and many more times that number have been injured and maimed. Afghanistan is basically still a medieval tribal country, with regions dominated by local warlords and an economy almost entirely based on opium. What possibility is there of forcing it to become a western-style democracy and establishing human rights as we understand them in the west?

The original reason for invading 10 years ago was to capture Osama bin Laden and destroy his terrorist organisation, Al Qaeda. Hasn't this been done? Bin Laden is now dead and his international terrorist group is nominally based in Pakistan, Sudan, and Somalia.

Frank Roberts - HMForces.co.uk

The British Armed Forces has a long tradition of custom, pagentry, and history.

Trooping the Colour

Like it or not, the naval and military services are bound up in the cultural life of the United Kingdom; its languages, architecture, religion, philosophical views, art, and music.

Whether you are loyalist or republican, that cultural life is part of this Island’s great cultural heritage which you are a part of, surrounded by and invited to join, irrespective of your background – something the British (whether that’s Irish, Welsh, Scottish or English) have always been reticent and moderate in talking about – you should have and will have chances to enjoy all that the military has to offer. If you’re a spouse of a service member, your child or friend, or sibling may be serving, get involved, don’t miss the opportunity to have some great fun.

Even if you’re not part of the forces or a friend is serving, you can be a part of it too, as the majority of people who enjoy these event are not military.

Not only is our cultural heritage important per se (Why? Well it is a part of your identity and moral duty to learn and enjoy these events), it also gives you and your family great opportunities to celebrate events together, create ideas for get-togethers and parties at home and in your local community – specially if you live on the patch. It’s a great way to meet and make new friends, for you and your children.

We’re going to list the events for you in chronological order starting with January but focusing on the lesser know events and days rather than festivals like Easter. On that note, movable feasts change dates year on year (such as Easter) never falling on the same date but rather on the same day. In addition this is a list of British events, not celebrating exclusivity.

Furthermore, not all events are Bank Holidays (there’re only 8 official Bank Holidays while some years have extra such as a Royal Wedding or holidays in lieu if Christmas or New Year fall on a weekend) but that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate something or take it as an excuse to have a party! However, some Regiments have holidays that are not enjoyed by the Public such as the Queen’s Official Birthday. So if you want more holidays get involved with the Armed Forces!

Just Click on a link below to take you to a page which will show you all the events for that month.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Resettlement Or Not? Jobs Available

If you're starting resettlement or about to end it and are looking for a job, don't forget our job boards are linked direct to Monster.co.uk - one of the UK's largest recruitment agencies.

We're advertising literally 100's of jobs for former Armed Forces and those about to leave the Armed Forces.

We've vacancies for many professions and jobs:

Engineers

Marine Engineers

Security Guards

Security Consultants

Electricians

Mechanics

Technicians

Drivers

Information Technicians

Project Managers

Retail Managers

Accountants

and many more...

Search our jobs boards today!!

Click on the link to access the jobs online.

Thanks and good luck.

HMForces.co.uk

A Trained Soldier with a Tank Regiment

After phase one training you move on to your specialist training which is called phase two. For me my phase two was very quick as I got fast tracked to my regiment to be a gunner.

I did however spend two weeks at ATR Bovvington learning how to drive a car and I did some advanced signals before I got called to my regiment.

I had been sent to my regiment in October 2000 in Fallingbostel Germany to learn to be a Challenger 2 Gunner - When I got there everyone was in Kosovo and there was only a rear party left behind. I started my training a few days after arriving. I learned how to be a gunner and how to operate the tank itself, I prefered being a gunner and spent a lot of my time in the simulator which is a better version of a playstation. The simulator runs different battle programs and different types of failures that you may come across from time to time. These range from your coax machine gun jamming to misfired rounds etc. I found it all very interesting but couldn’t wait to get on the ranges and experience the fire power for myself. Unluckily I would have to wait a few months for this to happen.

After completion of my training I didn’t have much to do - With the regiment being in Kosovo all I had were guard duties which were very boring and the odd PT lesson. An officer asked me if I wanted to go skiing and try out for the regimental ski team, I said I was an avid skier so snapped up the offer. What I didn’t realise was that he was talking about cross-country skiing and that is how I got roped into that! I had been apart from my regiment for seven months and was in the ski team so no one in my regiment knew who I was - They came back from Kosovo when I went skiing. I thought it was quite funny.








Eventually things changed when I got back from the skiing course and settled into regiment life more with the lads and that. This is when I got my opportunity to fire my tank on the ranges. It was also my first time inside a tank. So as you can imagine I was nervous and my commander was an absolute stress freak which didn’t help me. By the time we actually got to the ranges I was a nervous wreck because the commander had been shouting at me etc etc all the way there. So on my first range period I missed almost every shot because I was too scared to fire at a target. I had been kicked and punched in the back of the head and overall had one of the worst scores ever seen on a range period with a tank.

After this range period and my stressy commander I was ready to give up on my dream of being a soldier and no longer wanted to serve in the army. As it turned out the Commander got sacked and I ended up with a newly promoted sergeant sitting behind me. What a difference this man made - He was calm and talked to me on the ranges and told me not to worry. So when I went out on the ranges again I transformed from pathetic to pretty good. Then soon after, with this sergeant as guidance I became one of the best gunners to have graced a challenger 2 in my regiment. I scored a 6 distinction (highest score possible) and also a 100% hit rate every time I went to the ranges.

Join the hot Tank debate: Challenger vs Abrams

I settled into regimental life really well after this incident and started feeling good about myself. I also started getting to know everyone in my squadron then everyone else. It’s amazing how quickly you remember the names of 400 people. I then also met the Queen a few times and managed a few parades for her too, which was a laugh and something of an achievement.


Miky Kelly was a sufferer of PTSD but sadly died in May 2010.

United Kingdom Hoping For Brighter Future For All After Independence

Vessels such as HMS Ark Royal are a thing of the past

Scotland choosing independence is likened to Scotland leaving the UK (“Swinney takes flak over Navy shipbuilding claim”, The Herald, June 8).

As the United Kingdom is made up of only two Kingdoms, Scotland and England, plus a Province and a Principality (Northern Ireland and Wales), surely it is self-evident that on Scotland’s departure, there will be no UK, or United Kingdom of Great Britain. Instead there will be the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland.

Almost certainly the Principality and Province will have to be consulted on their relationship with the two Kingdoms and with each other. It is to be hoped that, for them too, the future could be brighter than the past.

Malcolm Black
Oban, Argyll.

To see more click here... 

Campaign: Wear Your Poppy With Pride

By Harriet Phipps

They gave for you. Please sign for them. 
 
I would like your help & support, can you please pass this message on to all your colleagues, family’s, friends and any other contacts that could help me with my campaign.

Subject for debate – Should employees be allowed to wear a Poppy our National Symbol of Remembrance at work or not!


My name is Harriet and I’m 18 years old, back in November I changed the Employment Policy of an American clothing company because I was told I couldn’t wear my Poppy whilst at work. I am now on a mission to lobby the Government to look into this matter, so this embarrassing situation doesn’t happen to others in the future.

Please take a moment to look at my website and my petition, I do hope I can rely on your help & support as I need a 100,000 signatures or more to help make this petition work and be eligible for a debate in Parliament.

BBC Midlands Today covered my story on Monday 7th March, you can now watch it on my Website..
My campaign / petition and web site is now in full swing, the online petition is currently standing at 8,787 and I have over 1,000 signatures on my manual petition, a long way to go yet but I intend to hand deliver my petition to No. 10 personally.

Please help me by spreading the word as this is such an important and most sensitive issue to be addressed, don’t leave it to others please sign it today.