Don't let the education & resettlement officers give you any waffle - ELCAS, SLC and your resettlement allowance are all appropriate sources of funding for flying training. All you have to do is demonstrate that the course in some way aids your personal or professional development - and if you cant blag that, don't even bother sitting the PPL exams! (Top tip ... "the PPL is an unavoidable stepping stone on the path towards a CPL")
I used 2 yrs worth of ELCAS (2 x £1000) towards the ATPL groundschool course (some careful timing of module 1 and module 2 was required to make sure they fell over two academic/financial years). I then used the third year's worth (another £1000) for an R44 type rating.
I have used the SLC (£175 per year) for each of the last 3 yrs towards the cost of a Licence Proficiency Check.
For the resettlement, your entitlement is for a grant of £534 towards the cost of a training course, but you are also entitled to NRSA for up to 28 days if there is no service accommodation nearby.
A number of resettlement course providers, usually based overseas, have come up with packages where the accommodation and training is bundled together as a residential course. For a 4-week course the accomodation element is invoiced as 28 x £100 (or whatever the appropriate rate for that country is) and the tuition is charged at - unbelievably - £534 - making a total invoice of £3334 (there or thereabouts) all of which is - purely by coincidence - allowable as a claim under current resettlement rules.
Details are easily found in Quest, Pathfinder, Courses4Forces and similar magazines that are normally to be found in the RHQ toilets. You can become a diving instructor (go diving in the Seychelles), become a ski instructor (spend a month skiing in Canada), become a yachtmaster (a month sailing in Capetown). You get the picture ...
A US PPL package (flying and accommodation) would set you back about £4k if you arranged it privately - although flights, medical, exams, licence fees etc. all soon add up and will push the cost over the £5k mark quickly enough. You would need to find a provider who is happy to invoice you for their services in the manner descibed above.
Be prepared to stand in the education officer's in tray and make him or her approve your applications - most of the ones I met were simply unable to comprehend the full costs of flying training and could not believe that a course that cost over 2 grand could be completed in a weekend. However, with much patience and not too much patronizing, all of my claims have been paid. I am presently planning a holiday in the US - to add a seaplane rating to my licence, obviously.