Capped Actuals?
Nail on the head DS! Capped Actuals is an absolute shambles!
I have been part of 2 detachments under the new system and the only good point is the new system keeps the Det Admin Officer off your back because he / she is working every hour God sends keeping the paperwork up to date.
From experience, all that now happens is everyone on the detachment is eating fantastic meals every night - the attitude (quite rightly so) is: 'If the accountants are going to give me $100 per day, then I'm going to spend $100a day on my meal'. Now, I fully appreciate that if you were entitled to $100 rates under the old system this attitude does not cost any more - but neither does it save money.
We are also entitled to PIE (around £10 a day) and certain elements of LSA, or is it OSA? Under the old system, guys very rarely claimed this extra allowance, but now everyone claims it to make up for the lack of 'spending money'. Funny this.....you no doubt saw the Treasury directive stating that if everyone claimed all the allowances they were entitled to then there would not be enough money in the pot to cover it all!!!!
Anyway, I digress, the answer to your question is No, not everyone is on the capped actual system. 2 Gp do not work on the capped actuals, they are using the old rates system - or they have used it on the 2 trails I have been involved with. The reason I was told was that it would be too difficult to administer a Tristar load of passengers under the new system - quite right!
So, the big question is.....What does the new sysem save us? It costs more to administer, takes up more man-hours to process (albeit now the individual has to do the work rather than the 'professionals' - thus distracting you from your primary duty), has been ditched by 2 Gp as it is too cumbersome and, if everyone claims what they are entitled to, we can't afford it!
If anyone out there has more accurate info or reasons, I'd love to know them!
Progress? What do you think?