'Commitment Bonus' of £15,000 for the military

[alfie1999]

Announced by Brown in the commons. No doubt the £15,000 will be divided between all those serving.

Along with funds to encourage those serving to get on the housing market...just as the arse is fallling out of it.

[Whenurhappy]

Where are the details - nothing on the BBC yet...

[alfie1999]

I said he'd just announced it in the house.

Switch sky news on.

[cargosales]

Not much detail on the Beeb yet

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7303846.stm

It just says "Amongst other changes, he [Brown] also said there would be £15,000 bonuses for some long-serving military personnel"

Note the words some and long-serving before getting too excited.

[Wensleydale]

The small print says that the bonus will be paid in Northern Rock shares..... (After it has been taxed at 40% of course)!


I have just realised that Heather Mills has received nearly £25.000.000 for a "Non-commitment Bonus". Putting this into perspective, the Prime Minister, like Heather, doesn't have a leg to stand on.

[Yellow Sun]

Why don't the Government pay someone who has completed their pensionable engagement their gratuity if they are staying in the Forces?

This is a hoary old one that has done the rounds almost as often as pensionable Flying Pay. The primary reason is that it would make the gratuity liable to tax. Changing the rules to exempt it would open the largest can of worms imaginable, it really is better off the way it is.

YS

[XV410]

Here.

http://defenceintranet.diiweb.r.mil....sPersonnel.htm

[mutleyfour]

These things don't seem to work, as the cadre of those that qualify are usually small and after tax is £9000 going to encourage those wanting to leave to re consider.

[FFP]

From the MOD Website

All those personnel below Officer level passing the four year service point will have access to the new Commitment Bonus scheme from next year. The longer they serve the higher the payment will be. The scheme is designed to reward past service and to encourage further retention in the critical four to eight year period, where we face the greatest retention challenge.

Fair enough. Good on anyone who can get a retention out of the Govt.

So, if your a F/L, front line, away on dets you still get nothing ?

Sounds like that could become another "push" factor in the critical area of 30-34 year olds that we lose to the airlines / civilian world....

[airborne_artist]

From the MoD website:

The new incentives include a significant increase to retention bonuses for personnel below officer level, of up to £15,000, and a new £20m pilot scheme

Sounded quite exciting for aircrew, until I read on...."which will offer more affordable home ownership for Service personnel..."

[cja197]

Details here (not for Offrs)

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/De...sPersonnel.htm

[Melchett01]

Great, yet another well thought out govt spending spree

All those personnel below Officer level passing the four year service point will have access to the new Commitment Bonus scheme from next year. The longer they serve the higher the payment will be. The scheme is designed to reward past service and to encourage further retention in the critical four to eight year period, where we face the greatest retention challenge

...... after which point we will no longer be in govt so we can blame it on the other lot when everyone leaves.

Does smack somewhat of 'the officer class' not being worthy of recognition or the government really being keen on retaining our services. Which would be typical of this bunch of Scottish socialists (I always thought this government was a wolf in sheep's clothing) who want to do all they can for the 'workers' and everyone else can be damned.

The real kick in the teeth here is for those of us at SO3 level. We are expected to look after those below us. The senior officers on their career & staff college pushes only seem interested in looking after themselves. So just who is looking after the JOs? Given today's announcment, it would appear that we still have to look after ourselves because no other bugger is interested in us. And looking at some of the Arrse threads in recent months, it appears a large number of their SO3s have been looking after themselves and walking.

Still never mind, got another 4 months in the sandpit to look forward to this summer - 4th in 5 yrs - all that time sitting in the shelters with my kevlar on will give me the opportunity to work out why all the past service I and those like me have put in isn't worthy of financial recognition and an encouragement to stay.

And what are the odds of everyone getting this 'retention bonus' - down to the fat airman in stores who doesn't even own a passport let alone go on det and whose repeated fitness test failures are probably such an admin burden we could do well without him. It just makes you want to scream sometimes.

[Squawk7143]

Strange how things work out...in the late 80's and early 90's they were paying JNCO A Tech's and L Tech's to leave the RAF. Now they are paying to keep people in....

[Melchett01]

Flt Lt Mac

I have absolutely no problem with the troops getting a commitment bonus. What annoys me is the way it is being phrased - that it is to reward commitment and encourage retention.

Well I think you will find many of the officers across all services are serving longer than the troops - despite everything that happens. Where is the commitment bonus there then? And if you want to talk about officers sitting in shelters and not facing the Taliban face to face, RAF Regt aside, I wonder what the proportion of RAF personnel going outside the wire to get their hands dirty are officers and what proportion are from the ranks .... in case you had forgotten or just not noticed, the RAF is almost unique amongst the services in sending its officers off to face the enemy.

Anyway, I was not intending to start an officers/ORs debate, merely wondering why there is rarely anything in the pot to encourage us to stay and hacked off at the cack handed way it's being done - yet again.

[Aeronut]

what is an S03?

[ZH875]

Originally Posted by Aeronut

what is an S03?

He's the one who tries to take credit for the work his SNCO's do. (unless he is a Geordie)

[Pontius Navigator]

Originally Posted by Aeronut

what is an S03?

SO=Staff Officer and the 3=Capt/Flt Lt etc, 2=Maj/sqn Ldr, and 1=Lt Col/Wg Cdr

You therefore have the alphabet soup of J2 SO3 etc


What was wrong with the old Ops 1, Ops 1a etc.?

[shandyman]

I feel an increasing urge for a rant in relation to Melchett01's post. When one looks a little closer, I think that you will find 'The Mighty Rod' has a rather high Airman to Officer ratio. I think that you will also find a significant amount of airmen, aircrew and groundcrew, manning quite a few of our other air assets "facing the enemy". Willing to wager in fact that the ratio overall is pretty equal!!

[Wrathmonk]

Of course If you wanted the commitment bonus that badly you could always resign your commission and rejoin as an AC/LAC!

[Melchett01]

How do you know how it is being handled? There are only scant details on the MOD Website at the moment.

Easy - show me something that Brown(e) et al have done for the military (I could stop there) that hasn't turned into a crock of ****e or been mishandled. I'm surprised you even need to ask that question, just look around you - JPA, SF CH-47s, DHMH, Iraq in general, Type 45 procurement, body armour provision etc etc.

Quote:
We are expected to look after those below us.

I can only apologise if the men and women who serve below you are such an inconvenience to. Imagine he cheek of the RAF asking you to look after these people, shocking. Perhaps the MOD should remove your flying pay whilst you are on your ground tour?

I never said it was an inconvenience - that was your assumption. And who knows, it maybe for some. What I was merely asking, which you seem to have missed completely is who is looking after those in the middle. There is a definite lack of support or recognition for those in positions above the junior ranks and below the senior officers. Imagine the cheek of those in middle positions to expect a bit of support and recognition from up top, shocking!

I fail to see what is wrong with asking who is supporting those in the middle, but obviously you disagree there. However, you come across as a well balanced ex-ranker with that sort of response - a chip on each shoulder from time at Cranwell and as a grizzled NCO down at the coalface