And another thing!
 

As this is a rumour network.

Several bods were seen parading at the cashier to draw funds on payday to make up for the fact that JPA doesn't quite understand 'Reserve Rights' (bit naughty as the difference is quite a few hundred quid). Moreover, there's no guarantee that they won't have to the same again this month.

Obviously, (to use the spin doctor speak) an isolated case :hmm:

Sussed it! They are developing a module which will allow you to enter your loyalty cards, Airmiles cards, Tesco Clubcards, etc so that as you spend the money they pay you, you will accrue credits on your accounts. Once you have enough credits, then you will be deemed "payable" from your loyalty card accounts.

This way, you are duty bound to spend all your money so that you will get paid again. All those who fail to spend enough money will have money allocated to them from people who are misusing Airmiles accounts. Additionally, all those that are deployed with no access to the system will not be paid at all as they cannot complain or see their non-existent Pay Statements - adding more money to the pot for those that man the important Admin Centres. Simple really.

Once they have finished working out how to cash in Childcare vouchers, Working Tax credits and how to claw back the "bogof" purchases you make in the NAAFI, it will be a fully functional system, and Wg Cdr Whatsisface will be able to receive his gong without a trace of embarassment or hypocrisy. Well done Sir!

SilentlyScreaming, are you a refuge from a different bulletin board? Did we meet there last year in the IT section before my system crashed me out?

PS, under a different name and certainly not Cromwell

Successful,
Minor Problems,
not financially disadvantaged,
small number of individuals



......all of the above had a different meaning whan I was in grade 8.

Please, don't throw your hands up in horror that a 'wife of' has joined your forum to post in this thread. I'm as affected by JPA as the rest of you. Husb is often overseas, as he is now, with no access to JPA. So to be told that his payslip has still not arrived at his work, a week after RAF Innsworth say they received it, is most frustrating! I know his pay is @ £400 down for April, as I run the household accounts and have seen what was paid into our joint account but I do not know why. Nor are we ever likely to, if what I have read in this thread is anything to go by. Husb also has 3 outstanding claims for overseas trips yet to be paid and has told me he will not be asking for advances of rates in future, as it is too difficult. It seems we will be subsidizing RAF operations instead. Perhaps the 'good' Wg Cdr Field could take on board that I work FOR a charity, but that does not make ME one! I do not have a month's wages to spare to cover for his superiors' crass incompetence so I will whinge if I want to!

As a result, I wrote to our MP, complaining about the appalling JPA and 'capped actuals' set up and received a reply, dated 5 May. He had passed my comments to Adam Ingram and was awaiting a reply. I have e-mailed him again today, asking for an update.

I also wrote to the Daily Telegraph asking them to get a journalist to look into the story but they have not replied.

BTW. To the person who named 'He Who Shall Not Be Named', shame on you and mine's a large G & T. Cheers.:=

Expensive Baggage, welcome. Good post not unlike some on other threads. Painfully accurate without being emotive. Exactly what your MP will need. Your MP was a good choice but don't badger him. Wait until you get an anodyne reply from Adam Ingram. Your MP will forward that to you.

Then pick it to pieces and go back at your MP. :}

Trouble is there is no backbone up there and too many with slope shoulders.

Hope no one re-writes your nickname. Anyway regards to Mr Baggage.

>>Pontius
Indeed thats me :>
I joined this forum whilst still at Innsworth, anyway, I'm now posting off topic really so I shall go back and hide in the corner.
I'd love to say I'm surprised by what has happened re. JPA, but I don't really think it has come to a shock to anyone at 'ground' level - seniority wise, not occupational physical altitude :>

Thank you for your welcome, Pontius Navigator. I will let you all know what the outcome of writing to my MP is.

We have recklessly added to the chaos by just moving from a quarter into our own home. That has always meant at least 4 months disruption to pay in the past so we will have to see what mayhem JPA can wreak with the event. :sad:

The words 'Top Quality', 'Low Maintenance' and 'Complementary' were omitted from my nickname for ease of typing and go without saying, anyway. However, the words 'Rotty', 'The' and 'Rottweiler' could very easily be inserted should the JPA and 'capped actuals' pantomime not be sorted out, pdq.;)

So, do we get an update from those who have failed to use JPA in the past as to it's current usability? Would be nice to know what they class as "fixed", and whether the illustrious Wg Cdr should be falling on his sword or accepting the plaudits.

I’m very surprised this morning as I have managed to book leave and check all my details on JPA. My personal details are still wrong and the JPAC won’t correct them. They say it’s an HR issue and HR must contact JPAC to sort it out, which does not make sense.

Apart from that it all seems to work. What a strange day. :confused:

Just in case you wondered what JPA stood for...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

JAM PACKED ACTION!!! Who said JPA was a joke??? I think I've spoken with Samurai Jack a few times...

Well guys, can't speak for everyone else, but for the moment whinging firmly stopped. Logon speed and accessibility seems good. Most of the functions that I have tried seem to work OK. It will take a while for all the pay errors to catch up (are they switching it off again to do the pay run for May?), but at the moment it looks fine.:oh:

Clearly we will all wish to whinge about how the functionality is different and not as good as the old systems, but hey, that is our right. It is a democracy after all and if we don't have a say in how we are managed because we don't have someone to look out for us then please let us whinge and moan as we see fit.

Bet they are looking forward to the first month's army pay run tho :E

Well does anyone know how I am supposed to increase DINCOME payments?

And I am still owed about £300 as a result of stupidly getting married and moving into married quarters at the same time as JPA was rolled out (am owed 2 months charges for single accom) !!!! :D :D

Oh, does anyone know how we are supposed to be paid LSA? I have a lovely box at the bottom left telling me how many days I have done, but no sign anywhere on my payslip about whether I have recieved payment for it!!!! :mad: :mad:

Hey, like I said, it will take a while to get used to the system and the things that have changed. How would you have sorted these questions previously? Have you asked your HR Flt or the JPAC about it? If they can't help you, feel free to complain.

Never said it was all rosey, just that most of it was working. I'm still hacked off they don't pay claims in cash anymore, but that isn't going to change!

Hate to agree with AMP, but I agree that we are now at the stage we should have been on day one. Let's see how it goes from here...

Quote from "Blairwatch" website
 

The RAF has declared it will have its stalled human resources computer systems fully operational by the end of the week, seven weeks after it went live.
But the MOD still has to determine what the problem was before it can guarantee that the Joint Personnel Administration system (JPA) can be rolled out on schedule to the Army and Navy later this year.
The HR system, installed by EDS, has only been able to manage taxiing speed while engineers figure out what went wrong.
Wing Commander Trevor Field, a RAF spokesman and administrator, said he was unhappy with press interest in the delay and "bored" RAF "whingers" on chat sites like the Professional Pilots Rumour Network (PPRuNe), which he said make things appear worse than they are.
"It adds fuel to a fire that is now smouldering, and by the end of the week will be solved completely," he said.

Put some leave in which was nice. :)

Even better checked my balance and instead of taking it off the allowance it adds it on. :rolleyes:

I'm putting a years leave in so when I put my notice in I can have a year paid off. :)

JPAC Help
 

Been 3 days now and still waiting the help desk to either , help , or get someone too do it. Due to a complete bails up on my personal details, and it would be on the ones I can't alter :mad:

You might have to wait on the phone for a long time, I hung on for 1hr 20 mins today! I had held for 30mins and thought b*gger this, I will see how long it takes to answer...When it was answered the apologetic girl at the other end said that she couldn't help as all she was doing was taking messages and someone would get back to me within 48 hrs.

Whilst this wasnt a major issue for me (other than reading some documents while holding), the problem revolved around leave entitlement, I will raise a formal complaint as 80 mins is definitely not 50 secs and these things need to be highlighted. I got the fax number for formal complaints from my OC PSF. One of the other guys in my office filed a formal complaint and within 24 hrs he was speaking to a person rather than leaving messages and waiting to get called back.

Raise the ante, see what happens.

WRW

You couldn't PM me that complaints number could you? I had a total of 33 minutes on hold the other day trying to sort out an HTD problem. JPA hung up on me at the 12 minute and 21 minute points and when I finally got through the girl on the other end couldn't answer the query I had and that I should take it up with my PSF. She then advised me that there was no "complaints" option. :ugh: I wanted to put in a formal complaint as the system is not doing what it was contracted to do and we should all ensure that the complaints system is fully exercised.

And for those of us overseas with no access to a JPA terminal and giving up calling the helpline after a 15 minute international call, how do we claim for the phone bills? Finally got a pay statement on 16th long after the charter arrived and now it is clear where they have screwed up. I just can't tell anyone about it and have to hope they will realise eventually.

And what exactly happens to EDS when they fail to meet the standards laid out in their charter? Oh well, it was only a target - and they missed! Maybe their top executives will only get a 90% bonus this year as a punishment.

I would love to say I told you so, however ......
 

I now have a couple of guys working on det who both put in for an 'advance' more than a week ago. However, neither have received any dosh and one of which has neither a credit card nor the dosh in the bank to cover his expenses.

I would love to make a flippant remark about the company that actually pays the money (& that they look after CSA payments so well :cool: ) but right now I have more important things to worry about. I'd like to say that I knew this would happen & raised it at previous JPA briefings but for the poor bugger involved it doesn't mean Jack Sh1t.

Not only do I loose that guy's productivity because he is trying to chase his dosh but if he doesn't get it by the end of his det he's screwed!:suspect: From a 'Duty of Care' perspective I'm less than unhappy.

Its easy for us well paid smart arses to say that 'one should have a months pay in the bank' but back on 'Planet Reality' it rarely happens. Moreover, the guy is away for a couple of weeks & has naff all in the bank. As much as I would like to prove the point of 'I told you so', my first priority is to look after the individual concern & ringing JPAC has had no affect whatsoever.

Now I will re-iterate that I'm the first in the queue to have a whinge but, if we are going to have individual expenses, then everyone gets their own Corp card. If you abuse it, you get fizzed; or, if you go over the top, the overspend gets clawed back through your pay in due course. What you cannot have is people paying for expenses imposed upon them when they don't have the funds to do so.:=

Put in a travel claim. Paid into my bank within 4 days. Job's a good'un.

Whatever they did to fix it seems to have worked. Now let's see if they can get a pay run right. And give me a rank, instead of "Mr Inquisitor, The" - and a service number, instead of an "employee" number.

REPORTING COMPLAINTS
 

The AFPAA web site and customer care charter list e-mail, telephone, fax and postal addresses to send queries (and complaints) to so that should not be difficult to find wherever you are in the world.

However, if you were deployed when the charter was posted to your home address you would be somewhat stuffed. (If there is an e-version of the charter, I apologise, I haven't seen one!)

They are trying to tell us something, chaps!

Pump JPA into Google and this is the first link that comes up:

http://www.j-p-a.co.uk/

The message is clear, there are other jobs out there without the F-Factor!:rolleyes:

And their mission statement is:

"JPA's unique aspirational culture and entrepreneurial teams are creating a multi-faceted international recruitment business, respected by our customers and competitors alike."

Sounds straight out of Innsworth? :ok:

Maniac55 has hit the nail on the head. Most of us are just having a "whinge" because they replaced a working system with one that doesn't (yet - maybe). But, right now, there are some people in real hardship because of this and, not surprisingly, their mind is not going to be focussed 100% on the job. That is a flight safety hazard enforced on us by the people who will crucify us when something goes wrong! Somebody ought to have dusted off a copy of "distractions".

FOI Enquiry Thank You


Your form will now be processed and a response from the appropriate department sent to you shortly.

;)

JPAC CONTACT DETAILS - COMPLAINTS
 

JPAC Enquiry Centre
16 Mar 2006
If you have a routine enquiry please contact our JPAC Enquiry Centre directly

JPACEnquiryCentre
94561 3586
[email protected]
0141 224 3586

94560 3600
0800 085 3600
0141 224 3600
+44 141 224 3600

JPA Links
 

A couple of interesting, but completely unrelated links

Try going to www.jpa.co.uk



"For More Effective Business"



or



www.jpa.biz



"THE VIRTUAL OFFICE FOR ALL YOUR BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION NEEDS"



Y_G

Thanks MilSpFunc, but none of those numbers allows you to make a 'formal' complaint about the system. They put you through to the helpdesk at JPAC who then have 48 hrs to get back to you with a query; I have 1.5 hours before my 48 hrs runs out for the query I placed on Wednesday.

The number I was given by PSF is not on that list and receives more attention higher up the food chain. I am not knocking the girls/lads at the end of the JPAC helpline, they are undermanned and uninformed of the issues at hand. Whilst they have increased the numbers of people answering the phone, it appears that the 'behind the scenes' numbers have not increased. Therefore the queue remains the same size, infact it has been made longer as instead of answering your query in 24hrs they have 48hrs. In my case where I held for 80mins and assuming it takes 3 mins to take a message, that meant there must have been 27 people in front of me for that operator and if there are 40 operators, that is 1080 people in the phone queue - how many man hours is that?

I personally am happy with the way the system is working for me as my claims and pay has been paid correctly, but this cannot be said for all the people in the RAF and to say that JPA is a success is something just shy of a lie (although it does depend on your definition of success).

Still no pay statements for March or April, Apr pay run wildly incorrect. I raised an SR on 8 May which was "forwarded to the relevant department for further investigation". 11 Days later - nothing!!!!! Yesterday I asked for an update......surprise, surprise, still nothing!

To the people who thought this would be a great idea...I hope your next s**t's a hedgehog...:mad:

SBG

Formal Complaint
 

Where R We, if you want to make a complaint, they will only accept it in writing. If I recall, the address is on the goood old customer charter and on the JPA web site. The office is down in Gosport not Glasgow.

The number I have is a fax number and they did ask that a fax be sent rather than something over the phone. Gosport would seem right with a number beginning with 023....... Just checked the back page of the charter under 'formal complaints procedure' and it is the same number.

Gosport - HMS Centurion then.

Wikipidea says this about a centurion:

"Centurions often suffered heavy casualties in battle, generally fighting alongside the legionaries they commanded. They usually led from the front, occupying a position at the front right of the century formation. They led and inspired their men by example. They also sought to display the skill and courage that got them to their rank in the first place. It's for these reasons that they often suffered a disproportionate number of casualties."

So that'll be why they named the RN's pay and manning office after the Roman officer, because the pay staff always fight alongside the ...lead and inspire...display skill and courage...

Or something like that.

There is a way of emailing complaints about the JPA EC the address to use is AFPAA Support

JPA Help Desk
 

I've successfully submitted two claims now, one T&S and one advance. Having had the advance paid in to my account and been on my trip I rang JPA to find out how to link my claim to my advance and I was told that they didn't know and to submit a query online!:ugh: Fairly basic stuff I thought, highlighting how poorly trained these people have been. I rang PSF and they said submit your claim, which will be paid then any advance will be taken out of your pay at the end of the month! In the meantime I get a month's interest on my advance! :DSounds a little strange to me, can anybody confirm that this is correct?

Yup, at the moment anyway. Had the advance - paid into bank within the 4 day rule. Did the trip - put the claim in - also paid into the bank inside 4 days. The excess will be recovered from the next pay run after the 31 day reconciliation period, so about 6 weeks interest on the dosh! :E

See also the "I'me not going on a det" thread.

A relevant quote
 

If you don't have the time to do something right, where are you going to find the time to fix it? - Stephen King

Nuff said on the subject for a while I feel

So, they think JPA is sorted do they?

Then let them answer this:

Why, when I phoned my HR admin this morning ref a pay error, was I told that the whole of todays payrun was being recalled because it was all bollox and that lots of "stuff" had been missed from pay-packets?