We've been told at a JPA brief to have at least one months pay in our account when the change over comes.....
That's worth a letter to your MP, who should ask Reid how his dept can get away with such a brazen approach to a serious issue. Imagime the problems that could occur if a lad/lass is not paid on time while at sea/war/on det and his/her cheques/DDs bounce while they are dodging bullets?
In a civilian environment it is a breach of contract not to pay staff on time, and on the rare occaisions where it has happened (as a result of a cockup in BACS etc) the companies I've heard of have paid all out of pocket costs for overdrafts etc. When a customer of mine paid me late and blamed a new computer system I promptly sent them a late payment surcharge which they also paid.