Armed Forces Pay 2018
 

Just seen an IBN telling us all that the 2018 Pay Review findings won't be sorted until Sep 18, so no 1 Apr 18 uplift. Feeling valued? Not much.:hmm:

But that's ok, because we will be getting a good old 10% pay rise to make up for the real time cut in wages since 2010 or so!

Or B.......

Remember, Fallon is our Minister! :uhoh:

OAP

There is no extra cash coming the MOD's direction for pay rises above 1%. That straight from the horse's mouth at a recent town hall. What we have discretion to do is award over 1% across the board if we somehow find the cash to fund it, so cut elsewhere. Or as I think will be more likely, targeted rises with some getting over 1%, some getting 1% and potentially some getting below 1%. But any rises will be back dated to 1 April.

What will be an issue is if we do go for the targeted rises path is pay rises only for specific areas, but charges raised across all personnel.

Depressingly inevitable. Due to the increase in charges the 2017 pay round left me with £370pa less take home. :{

A sadly old and familiar story ... it was ever thus. One of the less-creditable aspects of life in a blue suit. My sympathy to those being shafted.


I do hope they cough the Pensions on time and to scale!

Well, it just shows how badly-off the Polies have got us! Methinks the Tories ought to revise their views of wealth taxation or, they will collapse under comrade corbyn. Certainly, by getting real about wealth tax, they could steal the comrades' thunder.:ooh:

OAP

Not seen the note so what reason do they give?

It does say that any rises will be backdated to April.

Something about the governments announcement of potentially public sector larger pay rises and time to analyse this.

Will they be back dated with interest added on? If not then that's just plain theft!

Remember they recently announced an extra bonus for police officers that bust the 1% cap?

Well most forces had to find the money from existing funds and decided not to pay the bonus. My missus got the good old 1% again.

Because of the PR success of this, I predict you will be promised bonuses over 1%, but will not actually recieve them. The government can then blame the senior officers for deciding not to pay

Don't encourage them! If they did go down the route of a wealth tax and it went beyond property to be a percentage of the total value of your assets including savings and pensions, I can see that landing people with a chunky bill each year given how we currently value pensions for annual / life time limit purposes. It would actually be quite interesting to see how they would handle those with public sector pensions, especially unfunded schemes and those you cannot withdraw the cash from. They wouldn't get away with leaving them as on paper they are worth a fair chunk and it would be further cries of pensions apartheid. But there in lies the rub, like much else in the financial world, the value is paper only.

'Here's your 1%, now if you wouldn't awfully mind, we're going to take 1% back from your entire net worth. And if you don't have the liquid assets to pay, you can always treat it as a loan and roll it up until you die when we just add it on to the other tax bill'


All that said, I'm afraid there's just a little hint of the politics of envy buried in the notion of a wealth tax as espoused by the likes of Monsieur Picketty, coupled with it being too much of a very blunt instrument for my liking. If only they would just stop being so damned careless with the billions they already get in tax, we might not be so badly off! We're one of (currently!) the world's biggest economies. From the IFS, tax receipts are the highest they've been for years and are forecast to increase. If you listen to the politicians the UK economy is in rude health (I said listen, not necessarily believe). And the various Governments seemed to be so damned keen to divest themselves of anything that might cost money to keep on the books. So with all that in mind, surely they should be able to manage without introducing yet more ways to tax people to pay for rapidly diminishing public services and infrastructure?

That said, Corbyn's team did appoint Monsieur Picketty to their Economics Advisory Committee a while back; so if they do get in, don't be surprised if the first budget is a cross between Mao's 'Little Red Book' and Picketty's 'Capital in the 21st Century'

Well Meltchy, I am as unwilling to submit to unfair Tax as anyone. However, when the choice is between having some realistic curbs on the worst examples of undeserved financial rewards and having a complete slash and burn of the nation by a "popular" Trotsky UK Gov, I am going to go for the realistic curbs!:D The Tory party already supports moderate wealth taxation and, in the present situation, some realistic updates to our status quo must be expected, if the revolution is to be avoided.
Good grief, the UK is up **** creek! :eek:

OAP

OAP,

Absolutely, just define realistic curbs. Would it be easier to chase those off shore accounts and multi-nationals paying tax on profits in Luxembourg rather than UK turnover, or just take 1% off everyone's total net worth? If they viewed the latter, well, you might just end up with a re-run of the 'dementia tax' and Corbyn's lot measuring up the curtains anyway! And remember, once the money starts coming in the wont revoke the legislation: Income Tax was introduced in 1799 as a temporary measure to pay for the Napoleonic Wars. On that basis I think we've just about cleared that one up so we can scrap the temporary tax?!

The U.K. tax code is far too complex. For every rule there is a loophole. So stop making rules and re-write it on the basis of principles you are expected to follow and which are difficult to dodge your way out of and we might find the tax take goes up so we don't have to introduce yet another tax on an already overtaxed populous.

Apologies for the thread drift, normal banter may be resumed.

Think we are on the same side. :ok:
The trouble is, I don't see a single politician, from any party, that represents the UK that I think I live in. :oh:

OAP

When I left the service of HM Gov in 2001 we were fully accustomed to annual pay rises that never achieved a positive rate so I was enticed to move over to the states for 3 times the pay. But the tax system here makes the British system look like a work of art - the US tax code really is ridiculous, not least of which is the need to submit annual tax returns, something I never did once in the UK.

Oh well, swings and roundabouts.

At least AZ is warm! We have friends in PHX, who we visit at least once a year.

BUT ..l yes, I once looked at an on-line US Tax return. Possibly the scariest document I have ever seen.

They've done the same with the police as well. Last year's 2% rise was made up of 1% plus a 1% non consolidated bonus. The meant that this year's 2% rise was in reality 1% due to the bonus ending. I'm sure that everyone in the armed forces remembered the Government's pledge to accept pay review boards recommendations in full only to have them play fast and loose with every pay rise since then. Strangely enough the only pay rise not messed with have been MP's as theirs are fixed as they are linked to the average across the public sector and funnily enough they weren't given any 'bonus' pay and their rises have been fully consolidated.