I'm afraid I have to go against the flow and say that the pay award is not that bad considering the huge black hole that is appearing in this Governments finances.
People always seem to forget that for the Officer Ranks, unless you've 'peaked out' in a particular rank, you get an increment as well as the Pay Award within any calender year. From my quick bashing on a calculator, for most, the pay rise over the whole year will be about 4.6%.
Then there are those that either jumped across, or will within this calendar year, to the PA Spine. As you can't take a pay cut and the pay rates are not perfectly aligned, this is worth about another 0.3%.
Ask around your mates out in civvy street and see what type of pay and pay rises those of your vintage are getting. I bet many of them won't be seeing nearly 5%, assuming they've still got a job at all that is.
I don't see much green grass on the other side of the fence, so to quote a Monty Python favourite of mine..."Always look on the bright side of life". When you consider what a non-contributory pension is worth as well, we aren't badly paid really.
