Originally Posted by
Ginseng
Just where did I say that!
You mentioned about having the "good fortune" of not being posted, yet you also still want BSA?
All I'm asking is why is it so unacceptable for the Treasury to also look at the benefits of this "good fortune" from their point of view?
Maybe they (and I) have got totally the wrong end of the stick, but I can see why the MOD is questioning it. There are MILLIONS of people who now have as turbulent a domestic lifestyle as the military. They all cope, so the question now being asked is why can't we. As I said before, this applies to nearly every aspect of our work. Notice the rail card (once free) is now going up to over a tenner. Defence-funded dentistry is on the decline too. All small losses but they add up to one huge saving and THAT is what HMG want.
I think it sucks too but it's going on everywhere. Sadly, the cheapest and therefore most attractive option in the eyes of our current lords and masters is just you, in post, doing your job. If any outside financial burdens can be done away with or reduced they will be.
So morale will plummet. Yeah, and? That has no short term or easily identifiable financial value, it carries no pound-sign and appears on no spread sheet, so it can be allowed to decline. Cut an allowance though and kerching! You've suddenly saved a very real and visible figure.
"Last year BSA cost the taxpayer £Xmillion, this year, nothing!". It's yet another example of the accountants knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
And it wasn't a glib one liner. The BSA really
is a perk at the end of the day, it's the MOD subsidising something to make Service life less disagreeable. The fact that a number of people have become so accustomed to certain allowances as to rely on them (and admit it, that
does happen) doesn't help the defence.
OK so there are genuine cases out there, but these are the wheat that need separating from the chaff - that's too difficult and costly to administer so everyone loses out.
This loss of BSA is just MOD coming in line with a great many other employers, or at least trying to.
It falls apart when you look at what we've also been missing out on all these years
