The MOD's breakdown of pay shown here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7437014.stm is very misleading.
For a start they cannot claim that education allowance forms part of basic pay can they?! The £2175 seems suspiciously like a higher tier ELC claim and an SLC claim. For a start the private needs to do 8 years service to be able to clai ma higher tier ELC and even then they can only claim it 3 times so hardly equivalent to basic pay.
Are they also really claiming that forces accommodation in its current state is a benefit worth £425.83? Its scandalous they even charge for some of it.
The main problem with low pay and lots of allowances bolted on is that none of the allowances are pensionable nor can they be used to base a mortgage application on. Hardly the basis of a long-term retention strategy.