Innocent Man
Lets hope you are when you get back.
Anyway, somebody with some sense. You have weighed up the pros and cons and have decided to go anyway knowing that you will have to incur some costs. Well done.
Fella, you are all over the place on this. You state the above, yet that is exactly what we have all done before taking an overseas posting only to have the terms changed less than half way through.
Your ideas on what constitutes an exchange/overseas tour appear to be based on hopelessly out of date information. I've found my role rewarding and interesting, but am financially down on the income my wife and I would have generated if we had remained in the UK. I have had to work long hours and very hard for good results - no problem with that, it's satisfying. We knew what the LOA and our outgoings were and signed up for it. The Terms and Conditions we were posted on were serverely curtailed after we arrived.
If there is no need for the LOA, okey dokey. Chop it. Carry on, it will save millions.
On that basis, I hope that there isn't a civil servant somewhere who starts questioning the need for flying pay soon. Flying pay being a recruitment and incentive related award that is clearly not currently required, what with a full to bursting pipeline and a recruiting freeze.......
Simplistic maybe, but you don't seem to understand the simple point being made. You also appear to be very bitter, not sure why.