Armed Forces Benefits Calc

[Lima Juliet]

Anyone else tried the Armed Forces Benefits Calculator?

http://www.mod-abc.co.uk/

The U SoS Mr Twigg says...
Our Service personnel receive an excellent remuneration package which is fully deserved for the outstanding contributions they make in the UK and overseas. The new Armed Forces Benefits Calculator makes it easy for our troops to see the full worth of the benefits available to them

And DCDS(Pers) says...
The Armed Forces Benefits Calculator is an exciting and innovative project which I am confident will show all who use it just how competitive our remuneration package is

The right honorable Leon Jabachjabicz MP says...
I haven't seen propaganda like this since Lord Haw Haw and Comical Ali decided to run a current affairs news program!

It adds £2000 per annum for ELC even though it is only available for 3 years! £240 for dental treatment I never get (I haven't had a filling for over 15years!). The list is endless of overinflated benefits that I don't see in my monthly paypacket.

Unfortunately, Joe Public will not know any better and truly believe that a Sqn Ldr is on approx. £90k per year :ugh:

LJ (I'm not really an MP by the way)

[Always a Sapper]

Out f******g standing...... total Bo****ks..... :(

Typical of this Govt.... just about sums up their standard of accounting and doing business... :ugh:




Depressed now and I'm going to the pub..... I may be some time... :}



I may also be the the snappy one wots got a head hurt from hell in work tommorrow :E :yuk:

[Biggus]

As somebody said elsewhere, let us see an equivalent MPs benefit calculator......

[ZH875]

1. Think of a number
2. Claim it in pounds
3. Repeat until a) Caught or b) unseated

[Al R]

Its all very well complaining that MPs are better off than you, but Merseyside Police this week, announced it pays more in pensions than it does in salary - people in civvy street would die for a benefits package similar to the Public Services one. Just wait until you have to make the decision - NHS or Dental Plan. That £240 will seem like a godsend, let alone the good old days when you were given time off to attend.

[passpartout]

I think that this shows some of the benefits that we take for granted. I worked it out for me and it almost doubled my salary - granted, I don't claim anywhere near what I could for things like CEA or ELC, but I think that we tend to forget what is available out there.

The pension, although not enough to live on, is not to be sniffed at either, especially if the gratuity is included. While civilians don't expect to be sent away to be shot at, we do, and they don't get anywhere near as many packages in their salaries. It's not all bad - I know a lot of what is expected of us is rubbish and we are asked to do more and more with less and less, but we're not unique in that respect.

I await the incoming storm.

Edit: And I think that it is pointless trying to compare ourselves with MPs. They have their noses in their troughs and will always vote themselves more and more perks, until the major parties announce stands on things like rental allowances.

I think that Brown is poisonous, but he did make some sort of effort on wages (his own in particular) when he became the Chancellor all those sorry years ago

[teeteringhead]

It's a mixture that lets itself down by inconsistency. The dental bit is good - I recall a fang farrier putting up a private price list in the surgery so we knew what we were getting .... very impressive as I'd just had a gold crown!

The biggest cheat is surely the pensions .... yes we have a good and non-contributory deal .... but this is taken into account by the AFPRB who dock the pay rise accordingly ....

.... what? double counting! spin! surely not from this government .....:{

[London Eye]

Teeters,

I am not the biggest fan of the calculator, it should have a column for all of the things that cost extra as a consequence of Service life - Childminding is an obvious one and I bet that the average spend on kids presents to make up for the fact that we are away again for another Birthday/Christmas is higher than for others - and how about flowers for the wife or relationship counselling costs when that stops working :yuk:.

However, the pension thing is not double accounting as it is only counted once! it would only be double accounting if the salary element included the amount abated for the pension:confused:. Well I think that I understand myself.

LE

[London Eye]

probably true in any family where one of the parents spends 4-6 months per 2 years away from home and then works long hours the rest of the time to make up the work for those who are then away :hmm:.

[JackRyan]

Outstanding! May I add a few more lines from my own experience?

Wife & children cannot get on NHS register due to frequent postings
- - - > Might be estimated to be Negative £500 pa PRIVATE DENTAL FEES

Unable to buy own house due to frequent postings
- - - > Might be estimated to be Negative £20000 pa CAPITAL GAINS

Wife unable to maintain employment befitting of her skills and education due to frequent postings
- - - > Might be estimated to be Negative £10000 pa POOR JOBS

Wouldn't you know it? These exceed my amazing extra benefits! How have I taken for granted all these years my free annual eye test? My clothing allowance? 'A wide range of other allowances'? Leave?

[JackRyan]

This just makes me think, how can Gordon have the temerity to say 'judge me on the economy'? Northern Rock, the government mortgage bonds and now our extra £2bn of national debt so we can 'compensate' people for paying tax. If that's what it is, I'm due an awful lot of compensation! :mad:

[L1A2 discharged]

Shurely the subsidised accommodation should read 'substandard' accommodation.

More bollocks from the bunch of liars and trough inhabiting tossers we are lumbered with.

Roll on the revolution.

[Biggus]

What annoys me is the deliberate 'spin' to accentuate the positive. For example:

ELC - as someone has already pointed out I think, you get a max of £2,000 on 3 occasions, so to include it as part of an 'annual' salary benefit is incorrect. Also, do you get £2,000? No, you get funding towards the course of up to £2,000. So if the course costs £1,150, that is what you get.

CEA - While I realize some people may abuse the system, the reason CEA is provided as a 'benefit' is that our employer moves some of us around so often that our childrens education is totally disrupted, and they are disadvantaged. If we weren't moved so often the 'benefit' wouldn't be needed. Also, depending on the school, CEA doesn't cover all the fees, more like 50-60%. So, for each child at Boarding School, rather than having a benefit, to most families it represents a 'cost' of £9-10,000!! Not a decidsion taken lightly.


However, I must admit they missed one trick. The benfits are 'net', take an example of say £10,000 for CEA. That would mean earning an extra £16,000 'gross' (approx) to obtain £10,000 net if you were a higher rate tax payer. So maybe the benefit calculator should produce gross figures if it is trying to show you what your equivalent salary would be in the civilian world?

[Biggus]

Al R,

Not sure what your point is....

First of all I think MOD pays more in pensions than it does in salaries. People are living longer, we have for example 40,000ish in the RAF today, how many have retired in the last 40 odd years that are drawing a pension....??

As for MPs, my point is that an MP benefit calculator would no doubt come out with a sum of approx £250,000.....

£65,000 ish basic salary
£120,000 ish allowances
Best pension scheme in country. 1/40th of final salary for every year served (compare to 1/70th in current AFPS05). Qualify for pension after 5-6 years as an MP (can't remember the exact figure, but know you have to be elected twice, i.e in and then re-elected, to qualify.

What price the following 'perk'? Use tax payers money to fund most/all of mortgage for flat in London when working at Westminister as opposed to constituency. Serve as MP for 4/8/12/16.... years. On finally retiring/losing seat, sell London flat, which has no doubt, given London prices, gone up considerably in valuable. Pocket all the profit, funded by taxpayers money, with big grin on your face....

Alternatively, rent out flat and keep as cash generating asset appreciating in value!!

[Al R]

Al R,

Not sure what your point is....

You and me both.

Ok, my point is that you're complaining about the benefits allocated to a few hundred, whilst oblivious to the benefits of your own pensions package. I guess I was simply suggesting that 'we' (Yes, I benefit from it too) should be grateful for what we've got.. certainly compared to the millions of others who don't have what we're lucky to have. As I recall, I benefited from shedloads of perks. Civvies that I know gape when they hear about things like education allowances, free gyms, adventure training etc. I accept that there is less and less time to enjoy that kind of stuff at the moment, and that they are slowly being eroded but nonetheless.. you are lucky. Certainly with regards to the terms and conditions of your financial package. Perhaps instead of comparing it to those hundreds better off than you, you should compare it to the tens of millions worse off?

[Biggus]

Al R

I don't despute that I am well paid for what I do, and I didn't realize that my remarks implied that - if so not intended.

I would say that I think the lowest ranks are not very well paid.

As for my comments reference MPs. I guess my point is that it is a bit rich for MOD (which admittedly isn't directly MPs) to be telling us '....look at how well off you are.....' when you consider their job benefits, with no risk to loss of life and limb attached.

Recent talk of MPs (some) being unwilling to reveal their expenses, talk of MPs giving themselves one last pay rise of £15,000 as a sweetener to give up setting their own salaries, etc, were no doubt all in my thoughts somewhere.

I just don't happen to like/respect MPs........ My point of view for what it is/isn't worth!

[Al R]

I agree. Darling's intended budget would have made over 60,000 servicemen worse off.