The simple fact is that most recipients of CEA are getting money that is partly a compensation for the exigencies of their service life, and partly a contribution towards an aspirational lifestyle choice for themselves and their children.
The former is entirely justified. The latter is not - both on grounds of affordability, and 'fairness'. What makes this issue complicated is that the ratio of the former (reasonable) element to the latter (unjustifiable) element will differ in each individual case, based on personal circumstances, opportunities and ambition rather than factors that are within the control of the State.
The independent schools council states that the average cost for day pupils in a fee paying school is £2,963 per term. However, this increases to £4,038 if children are day pupils at a boarding school. Average fees for boarding at those schools is £6,678 a term.
It seems to me that a fair system of compensation would be for the MOD to contribute £1,075 per child per term for parents who opt to send their children to a school in which the child is capable of boarding (to compensate for the higher costs of attending such a school), and up to an additional £2,640 (abated by the cost of feeding a child at home) for each term that the child actually boards, but only when the service person is assigned to specified out of area or designated hardship postings, and therefore cannot provide the pastoral care for their child for genuine service reasons, and not because of lifestyle choices.
This would result in a considerably lower spend on CEA than at present - however it would be demonstrably fairer in the eyes of all those, civilian and military alike, whose perception is that the unjustifiable 'perk' element of CEA far exceeds the genuine 'need' element in too many cases.
The squeals from those in receipt of this perk who recoil at at the prospect of losing it - at a time when others within the MOD are facing the very real prospect of redundancy - vividly conjures the unpalatable image of the unmeritorious with their 'snouts in the trough' just like the bankers and MPs. Defence cannot afford such a negative public perception, and so CEA must be reviewed and reduced.