Accommodation Charges
PRunErs,
I am throwing myself on your mercy and hope that somebody may have some knowledge or experience of accommodation charging issues. The long story cut very short is that I am part of that wonderfully biblically sounding diaspora, serving on a Defence unit - read Army heavy - and well outside of the RAF admin chain. I have spoken to my Admin section, but as most of their time seems to be taken up with charges and appraisals my query seems to be well outside their knowledge / understanding, hence my question here.
One of the few Light Blue on my unit has come to me with a conundrum. He currently owns and lives in his own home and commutes daily but has recently had an assignment order for later in the summer with his new job too far for a daily commute, so he will have to live in the Mess during the week which is where the problem arises. He has been told that because he isn't married, he will have to pay full accommodation charges at his next unit despite his being a homeowner, continuing to pay the mortgage and living in his home when off duty. However, if he was married, those charges would be waived on the grounds that he was maintaining his family home and it was the RAF's decision to separate him from his family.
I have scoured the various JSPs myself and can't see any way out of it, short of getting married or possibly trying to persuade the desk officer to break his tour up into 12 month chunks as there seems to be a waiver on accommodation charges if you own your own home and are posted on a short tour of under 12 months. However, given that the Manning authorities are strapped for manpower(ironic, I know), I can't see them wanting the hassle this course of action might bring. Given all we are hearing that the RAF recognizes the changing demographics and expectations of its people, COS Pers' statement when he visited last year that the RAF would love to get people off base and into their own homes and recognizing peoples' desire for stability and some trappings of normality, this does seem to fly in the face of all these grand ideas.
If I were being charitable, I would suggest that this is simply one of the inevitable anomalies you get in a complex policy. If I were being less charitable, I would suggest that it penalizes single personnel for trying to have a life outside of the wire. So the exam questions:
The RAF don't appear to have actually done anything wrong in applying the policy, it's simply the policy itself isn't representative of the 21st century RAF. Is there any way of appealing against the policy?
Does anybody on here have any insights in to NEM - is it likely to go anyway towards rectifying these sorts of anomalies?
If all else fails, given that he will have to live on base or at least in the local area in order to carry out his role, could it be argued it is a justifiable expense and therefore claim some sort of tax relief / rebate on his accommodation charges?
I'm not particularly confident on any level that there will be a sensible solution to this. I don't think (hope) it won't be financially crippling for him, but over the course of an average tour length I can see accommodation charges easily being the best part of 5K - a rather large disincentive to continued service if this happens over a number of tours. Renting out the house is an option, but I sense that will lead to a degree of disenchantment as someone lives in his comfy home whilst he is back in a tired Mess. It all just seems rather incoherent when the realities of life are compared with the various grand announcements about how the services are adjusting to meet the demands of the 21st century.
So, if anybody has any ideas or suggestions as to the best way ahead - or even knows of a friendly contact at Air who might be able to advise, any and all pointers gratefully received.