Married Quarters for the axe
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Perhaps replace the quarters with an MP's second home allowance... The whole system is driven by political short sightedness, sell the stock off to generate funds in the short term knowing full well that you will be out of power before the issue comes to ahead and it will be someone else's problem, and stuff the poor sods it will effect.
At this rate ITV will be hosting the new series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding RAF Edition. They are reducing the services to a bunch of pikies.
At this rate ITV will be hosting the new series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding RAF Edition. They are reducing the services to a bunch of pikies.
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Jimlad, a fair enough argument, but throw the cost of fuel to get you home into the hat and I don't think there will be as many takers as you think.
With Dieso fast heading to £1.50/ltr now, just what is it going to be in say 8 years time? Or are we all going to be using public transport or cycling everywhere?
With Dieso fast heading to £1.50/ltr now, just what is it going to be in say 8 years time? Or are we all going to be using public transport or cycling everywhere?
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If this were part of a "joined up thinking policy" it could work.
American forces do not have a large stock of housing for their many hundreds of thousands of personnel, they instead give their personnel a housing allowance each month based on rank, time served and other factors.
With our reduced numbers of personnel, this could work well for us. The housing headache disappears. Our people rent locally. If you buy, when you move on it is normally possible to rent your conveniently located house to another serviceman. Close a base and it doesn't matter. Relocating personnel with insufficient housing available from Annington is no longer a problem.
Even at a nominal £500 per month, I am guessing this would be cheaper than paying Annington and administering the rental FMQs.
The problem, clearly, is with the way we are treated in the uk with continuously eroding terms of service. Even if we started off as I outlined on nominally £500 per month, you just know that in 10 years time it would be the same rate or lower and taxed into insignificance.
FMQs would be a distant memory and the allowance would quietly fizzle out. Shame for the government and us really.
American forces do not have a large stock of housing for their many hundreds of thousands of personnel, they instead give their personnel a housing allowance each month based on rank, time served and other factors.
With our reduced numbers of personnel, this could work well for us. The housing headache disappears. Our people rent locally. If you buy, when you move on it is normally possible to rent your conveniently located house to another serviceman. Close a base and it doesn't matter. Relocating personnel with insufficient housing available from Annington is no longer a problem.
Even at a nominal £500 per month, I am guessing this would be cheaper than paying Annington and administering the rental FMQs.
The problem, clearly, is with the way we are treated in the uk with continuously eroding terms of service. Even if we started off as I outlined on nominally £500 per month, you just know that in 10 years time it would be the same rate or lower and taxed into insignificance.
FMQs would be a distant memory and the allowance would quietly fizzle out. Shame for the government and us really.
At this rate ITV will be hosting the new series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding RAF Edition. They are reducing the services to a bunch of pikies.
Airmens' Married Quarter of the future?
With Dieso fast heading to £1.50/ltr now
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"Caravan?"
"You were lucky. We had to live in a cardboard box int middle of t'road. We used to dream of a caravan."
.........sorry, assuming nobody has got round to this shameless plagiarism yet this week?
"You were lucky. We had to live in a cardboard box int middle of t'road. We used to dream of a caravan."
.........sorry, assuming nobody has got round to this shameless plagiarism yet this week?
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They're surely missing something here:
By suggesting that there's an entitlement to MQs until 8-10yrs service what they don't realise is that now everyone will be in MQs!
Why? Because everyone, on serving 5 yrs or so, will have smashed through the bright-eyed phase, realised what the military is really about, and subsequently left at their 6-yr option...QED, there's no-one left with more than 6 years under their belt and everyone needs an MQ
By suggesting that there's an entitlement to MQs until 8-10yrs service what they don't realise is that now everyone will be in MQs!
Why? Because everyone, on serving 5 yrs or so, will have smashed through the bright-eyed phase, realised what the military is really about, and subsequently left at their 6-yr option...QED, there's no-one left with more than 6 years under their belt and everyone needs an MQ
I agree with the earlier posts. Why stay in a military where any benefits to serving Queen and Country and being stripped away by successive Governments intent on saving their own skin and that of the financial industry?
As for the 1000 odd vermin that are allowed to claim benefits allowing to pay for million pound mortgages - they should be rehoused immediately. Stuff like this makes my blood boil. I read last week of a 5th generation of benefit claimants that refuse to work because the state has continually provided for these leeches. Until we get a government with balls and an opposition in true opposition (ie both parties not occupying the same central political ground) there will be little change. Time to the conservatives to lean back swiftly to the right and eradicate the leeches that are bleeding this country dry.
Roll on Jun 12... tonight's sub standard PAYD meal in the Officers' Mess that I wouldn't feed to my cat, along with the transit accommodation with no heating, plastic mattress and no hot water was the final nail, along with the housing news today. Military Covenant my ar$e. Too bitter to stay.
As for the 1000 odd vermin that are allowed to claim benefits allowing to pay for million pound mortgages - they should be rehoused immediately. Stuff like this makes my blood boil. I read last week of a 5th generation of benefit claimants that refuse to work because the state has continually provided for these leeches. Until we get a government with balls and an opposition in true opposition (ie both parties not occupying the same central political ground) there will be little change. Time to the conservatives to lean back swiftly to the right and eradicate the leeches that are bleeding this country dry.
Roll on Jun 12... tonight's sub standard PAYD meal in the Officers' Mess that I wouldn't feed to my cat, along with the transit accommodation with no heating, plastic mattress and no hot water was the final nail, along with the housing news today. Military Covenant my ar$e. Too bitter to stay.
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In the Nutloose world you would get full benefits for 2 years, at the 2 year point they would cease.. Housing benefits included.
You would be given the opportunity to recieved basic food coupons to buy my meals at feeding kitchens and to avoid cheating of the system, I would make the coupons system reliant on having a chip installed under the skin to identify the person to the coupons. If you can chip a dog, a scrounging work shy layabout should be no problem, And for those that moan about it, let them support them
Ok the latter may be extreme. The only way the system can survive is to stop the drain and to stop the leeches feeding on it... The yanks did similar to the first part and 1/3rd of people found a job overnight
You would be given the opportunity to recieved basic food coupons to buy my meals at feeding kitchens and to avoid cheating of the system, I would make the coupons system reliant on having a chip installed under the skin to identify the person to the coupons. If you can chip a dog, a scrounging work shy layabout should be no problem, And for those that moan about it, let them support them
Ok the latter may be extreme. The only way the system can survive is to stop the drain and to stop the leeches feeding on it... The yanks did similar to the first part and 1/3rd of people found a job overnight
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Should we also perhaps look at the bigger picture of this crazy suggestion.
Royal Marines\Army
When a Commando Units deploys to somewhere like Afghanistan they leave behind their loved ones and it is these people that are left to raise the family and also WORRY about their husbands\partners\wives\girlfriends\etc etc etc.... These people are left in an empty house and usually in constant fear of that dreaded knock on the door. If they are surrounded by other wives who are in exactly the same position then there is immediate support. Married Quarters are usually extremely close to the base of the relevant unit which also means support is only a few paces away. If we do away with married quarters then we do away with this VERY close knit community which in times of need are assets that no amount of money can buy.
Do we seriously believe that any senior politician gives two hoots about the welfare of those that serve our country?
Royal Marines\Army
When a Commando Units deploys to somewhere like Afghanistan they leave behind their loved ones and it is these people that are left to raise the family and also WORRY about their husbands\partners\wives\girlfriends\etc etc etc.... These people are left in an empty house and usually in constant fear of that dreaded knock on the door. If they are surrounded by other wives who are in exactly the same position then there is immediate support. Married Quarters are usually extremely close to the base of the relevant unit which also means support is only a few paces away. If we do away with married quarters then we do away with this VERY close knit community which in times of need are assets that no amount of money can buy.
Do we seriously believe that any senior politician gives two hoots about the welfare of those that serve our country?
Nutloose, some may say a bit harsh, but I cannot fault your idea. Might help if we kicked out a few people that shouldn't be here.
Glojo, absolutely spot-on, shipmate!
Glojo, absolutely spot-on, shipmate!
roto pennae veneficus
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Let me introduce my serving military ‘friend’ Fred..
Fred got his mortgage just before the economy went breasts aloft and probably, with hindsight, overstretched himself (he included Flying Pay as part of his income, but everyone does that, right?
). Unfortunately, he has now lost that (extended higher rate) flying pay – almost instantly – due to a medical downgrade, but thankfully has been allowed to branch change within his Service for the remainder of his full-term commission as Fred still has a broad depth of experience both in and out of the cockpit and actually quite likes the job. He still has got a bit of equity in his house, but after making tentative noises to his mortgage company, he won’t be in a position to get a similar mortgage/re-mortgage, what with him now 25% per annum worse off. After lots of cutting back, getting Mrs Fred back out to work and child in nursery, he reckons he can just about cope.
So say, for arguments sake, he gets posted to Northwood in a few years.
Renting his house out in the SW won’t cover rent in the Northwood area and (without knowing the MQ situation up there now, let alone post any changes) he wouldn’t be entitled under the new scheme to get an MQ anyway. So, he commutes from the SW to London, filling up at £2/litre but the frozen-since-2010 GYH payments don’t come near to covering the fuel on his 14 year old Mondeo (which now also costs £1000 per year to insure) he’s out of pocket again. So he begins staying at NWD on a fairly permanent basis and Mrs Fred decides that the nice young builder who lives across the road is a better bet than an absent, increasingly poor husband and father. Right, sod this for a game of sailors, says Fred, and 7 clicks later finds he has 12 months to run and starts looking for a job in a market already saturated with the smart military types with his skillset who were forced out or left under SDSR 2 years earlier. At least he has no flying pay to lose on PVR because that went 2 years previously anyway
So, nice military pension to look forward to – Fred is glad he remained on AFPS75. Unfortunately, this has to be split between the first Ex-Mrs Fred and child No. 1 (sorry, Fred didn’t mention that earlier
) and the second now-also-ex-Mrs Fred and child No. 2. Oh well, he wants to do right by his kids so fair enough. At least the gratuity should help. Unfortunately, after the Budget of 2012 (or 2013) it’s now taxed at 40%, and is also split between the ex-wives. Because he straddles 2 pension schemes (entirely administered on JPA) it has become so complicated that it now takes SPVA an average of 14 months to sort out and commence payment. He must therefore sell the house. Unfortunately, the housing market is still stagnant and that previous equity is now at best a big fat zero but likely negative so any money he walks away with either goes on repaying the mortgage company the outstanding amount (enforced by the Family Court because he was awarded a gratuity) or the ex-wives’ (and their respective new partners') housing needs. So, after nearly 20 years of Service he ends up with nothing, living rough and drinking cans of Special Brew stolen from the Co-op 
So HMT, for Fred’s sake, please don’t tax our gratuities or remove in toto our FMQ entitlement – the lesson here is that personal circumstances aren’t always as straightforward as they appear and a blanket removal or instigation of a mandatory 8 year cut-off for MQ entitlement may not suit all!
Fred got his mortgage just before the economy went breasts aloft and probably, with hindsight, overstretched himself (he included Flying Pay as part of his income, but everyone does that, right?
). Unfortunately, he has now lost that (extended higher rate) flying pay – almost instantly – due to a medical downgrade, but thankfully has been allowed to branch change within his Service for the remainder of his full-term commission as Fred still has a broad depth of experience both in and out of the cockpit and actually quite likes the job. He still has got a bit of equity in his house, but after making tentative noises to his mortgage company, he won’t be in a position to get a similar mortgage/re-mortgage, what with him now 25% per annum worse off. After lots of cutting back, getting Mrs Fred back out to work and child in nursery, he reckons he can just about cope. So say, for arguments sake, he gets posted to Northwood in a few years.
Renting his house out in the SW won’t cover rent in the Northwood area and (without knowing the MQ situation up there now, let alone post any changes) he wouldn’t be entitled under the new scheme to get an MQ anyway. So, he commutes from the SW to London, filling up at £2/litre but the frozen-since-2010 GYH payments don’t come near to covering the fuel on his 14 year old Mondeo (which now also costs £1000 per year to insure) he’s out of pocket again. So he begins staying at NWD on a fairly permanent basis and Mrs Fred decides that the nice young builder who lives across the road is a better bet than an absent, increasingly poor husband and father. Right, sod this for a game of sailors, says Fred, and 7 clicks later finds he has 12 months to run and starts looking for a job in a market already saturated with the smart military types with his skillset who were forced out or left under SDSR 2 years earlier. At least he has no flying pay to lose on PVR because that went 2 years previously anyway
So, nice military pension to look forward to – Fred is glad he remained on AFPS75. Unfortunately, this has to be split between the first Ex-Mrs Fred and child No. 1 (sorry, Fred didn’t mention that earlier
) and the second now-also-ex-Mrs Fred and child No. 2. Oh well, he wants to do right by his kids so fair enough. At least the gratuity should help. Unfortunately, after the Budget of 2012 (or 2013) it’s now taxed at 40%, and is also split between the ex-wives. Because he straddles 2 pension schemes (entirely administered on JPA) it has become so complicated that it now takes SPVA an average of 14 months to sort out and commence payment. He must therefore sell the house. Unfortunately, the housing market is still stagnant and that previous equity is now at best a big fat zero but likely negative so any money he walks away with either goes on repaying the mortgage company the outstanding amount (enforced by the Family Court because he was awarded a gratuity) or the ex-wives’ (and their respective new partners') housing needs. So, after nearly 20 years of Service he ends up with nothing, living rough and drinking cans of Special Brew stolen from the Co-op So HMT, for Fred’s sake, please don’t tax our gratuities or remove in toto our FMQ entitlement – the lesson here is that personal circumstances aren’t always as straightforward as they appear and a blanket removal or instigation of a mandatory 8 year cut-off for MQ entitlement may not suit all!
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A job in the armed forces is not the usual 9 - 5 job. As others have pointed out, servicemen are deployed overseas and need to know that their families are in safe and comfortable accommodation.
Many of today's youths are physically and mentally unfit for the armed forces (besides the fact that many are unfit for any form of employment). It's no longer a case of wanting the best - but of needing the best. There are few jobs with such a high risk of losing your life - and the package must reflect this.
Many of today's youths are physically and mentally unfit for the armed forces (besides the fact that many are unfit for any form of employment). It's no longer a case of wanting the best - but of needing the best. There are few jobs with such a high risk of losing your life - and the package must reflect this.
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If indeed he has a licence in the first place, a lot of people may not have one.
roto pennae veneficus
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Just to clarify - Fred's predicament is an extrapolation of current trends - think 'Ghost of Christmas Future'. He tells me his last insurance bill was £300 though, and only has 3 points...
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Sad to say that this is just another nail in the coffin. Most of my colleagues and I are now seriously looking into leaving as the Ts and Cs of this so called 'career' gradually get eroded. No realistic promotion prospects until at least 35, pension getting worse, FRI being axed (probably), drastic reductions in flying hours (a struggle to keep current as it is) and now MQ entitlement going. If my peers and I are a microcosm of people of similar time done/experience levels in the UK's Flying Arms, MOD are seriously going to be looking at a big experience gap after we've all left in a couple of years and the more experienced guys have jumped at the end of their careers. There is no longer a reason to stay in this job.
You cost too much
Your SFQ costs too much
Your SLA costs too much
Your allowances cost too much
They dont want you
They want you to leave to save money
Wake up, smell the coffee, leave before the rush!
Your SFQ costs too much
Your SLA costs too much
Your allowances cost too much
They dont want you
They want you to leave to save money
Wake up, smell the coffee, leave before the rush!