The truth, the half truth and nothing like the truth
Ooops, I suspect the Mail on Sunday has caught a sever case of egg-on-face disease.
It is just possible that they have been given wind of some proposed change as part of the coming review of pay and allowances, but I think it's more likely to be this:
Under LSSA, a new recruit has to amass 100 pre-qualifying days, in lots of 10 or more, before receiving LSSA Level 1 from day 101. The current daily rates of LSSA are exactly the same as the previous low, medium and higher bands of the previous LSA. Each bad is 300 qualifying days wide, and LSSA, whilst introducing the pre-qualifying period, has extended the bands to include new higher bands 4 to 14 inclusive.
Let's take new recruit "Soldier A", who has never been away before for more than 10 days. For 2 6-month dets (say 366 days),he will receive LSSA at:
Days 1-100 = £0
Days 101-366 = Level 1 (£6:02 per day)= £1,931.32 (before tax).
Then take Soldier B, who has served longer and already spent 400 days away:
For the next 2 six-month dets he wil get LSSA at:
300 days at Band 2 (£12.18 per day)
66 days at Band 3 (18:34 per day).
Soldier C has already spent 700 days away. For the next 2 dets he gets:
300 days at Band 3 (£18:34 per day)
66 days at Band 4 (£24:50 per day), total over £6,500 before tax.
The difference between Soldier C and Soldier A is over £4,500 before tax, but then he has spent much longer away in long periods since joining.
Even though they may now be serving on the same dets, the principle of LSSA is that it compensates most those who suffer the longest cumulative separation.
I do hope the Editor of the MoS will tell his man to research things a bit more thoroughly.
Regards
Ginseng