Armed Forces Personnel - tell the MOD about its effect on your finances.

mike64_3

How and where are we supposed to find out about pensions etc? I left in 1985 paid into a pension fund or something but cant find any details about it.

zyonchaos

mike64 wrote: »

How and where are we supposed to find out about pensions etc? I left in 1985 paid into a pension fund or something but cant find any details about it.

If you type "SPVA" into Google, you will find a link for the mod.uk which has contact details on it for the SPVA (Service Personnel & Veterans Agency). They deal with all pensions enquiries and should be able to point you in the right direction.

My experience, which has messed me around several times. I am married with two kids and serving. When ever I have to go on a course if it is a civilian course I am expected to pay for the accomodation and food out of my own pocket and then claim the money back afterwards, and if the food costs are higher than the amount you are allowed to complain guess what??? Exactly Tough S**T.
If I go on a military course at another camp, it costs me money to eat in the mess there. At one point you weren't charged when on a course, but hey ho screw em seems to be the attitude.

I have a wife and kids and debt and we manage to keep ourselves floating with our heads above the poo pile and pay off our debts. To expect me to find £800 for a hotel and food for a weeks course is pathetic especially when I can find a cheaper hotel that does B+B for half that price, but cant use it because it isnt on an approved list. The answer at one point was that you could get it booked and paid for by your unit before you left with you paying for anything on top when you left, but not anymore apparently that would be too difficult. It might save them some money on fraud, but then I am just a lowly Corporal not an officer so what do I know??

wordsfan

I was a daughter of a member of the armed forces until I became a “wife of” for 7 years, now divorced (nothing new there for many of you I’m sure)


Contents insurance - almost impossible to get and at premium rates if you do and with exclusions that pretty much act against service life, pretty much not worth the paper they’re written on!!

Motor Insurance – Overseas you’re required to have insurance but when the time comes to move back to uk it becomes invalid – but you still have to keep paying it even if 10 months left to run. So you end up paying 2 lots of ins on the same car. Motor insurance for service addresses extortionate! Even though most service addresses a lot more secure than most civilian addresses.

Credit – impossible to get good credit ratings, excuses range from lack of credit history, moving house too often (?), services personnel being “bad with money”, lacking a “proper” postal address, lacking an employment history (dependants – this one really annoyed me as I had ALWAYS worked full time and always had found work in less than a month of each move)

Bank Accounts – having to fight tooth n nail to keep UK bank accounts when living overseas and for them to post to BFPO addresses, even though they’re probably the most secure address anyone ever gets!!

Benefits – friends who werewives being told they can’t claim JSA as they left their last job “voluntarily”. Tax credits treating you as if every circumstance change incurred as a result of service life is you just trying to be awkward, payments getting delayed/messed up completely every time you change something.

Service addresses (not just bfpo) “not recognised” by the computer systems of various companies and Govt agencies. Makes it difficult to take advantage of the bargains on the internet amongst other things.

Broadband/Pay TV/Landline contracts – virtually impossible to get decent deals due to overseas addresses, not wanting to deal with service properties (see above)

Travel Insurance – never covers travel cancellations for service reasons

Dentists – When I was a child service dentists also served the dependants. This is no longer true and we all know what a nightmare getting an NHS dentist is. Add to that most NHS dentists don’t like to “waste” spaces on their patient lists with service dependants.

Energy Supply – this would be useful for ALL people moving house. Knowing roughly how much energy is used for that property (as service property not uniform in this respect, every quarter you enter has a different heating system!) so that you can choose the most economic supplier for you.

Service Personnel’s lack of financial knowledge - Many service personnel go straight from home to service. They lack the knowledge of running their own finances. Some become pro-active and teach themselves but many don’t and get into all sorts of strife. In addition to getting used to so much being taken at source and thinking that what’s in the bank is there to spend on whatever, many also become very reliant on future earnings and are very bad at planning for the future let alone saving.
The amount they get paid when they first join up is a lot of money for a 17 year old who’s maybe had little more than pocket money or wages from a weekend/holiday job previously.



Yes service personnel get certain benefits, but as to good pay this isn't always true. My ex is in admin and would earn 40-50% more in civvy street. Plus probably get a company car etc.

peteuk

I cant agree with half of these....Sorry.

I have had no problem sorting out Broadband/Mobile phones/Insurance/Loans ect.....

Equally I have to say some people need to step into the real world. Before I joined I worked for the NHS. Yes they paid for courses but in reality we never claimed for anything above the course cost. So food, accom came from our own pockets.

Yes the forces does impact on certain aspects of peoples financal life, but the pay is far better than civi street.

The sad truth is too many of us become instituationilsed, so when we leave we fall apart. A three bedroom house doesnt cost £200 to rent, you cant get 3 meals a day for a £5 (not sure how much food chargers are these days as I dont pay them)

In the real world you cant claim a £5 a day for phone/papers ect when away, claims take more than 3 days to be paid, people dont come and pack your house and move you when moving home. When travelling you wont be paid to drive to work.....

However I do agree that financial training is a must, but it is where/when/how do you fit it in.

When I had to travel short notice I was asked if I had a credit card which I could use for accom. I dont have one, so within 15 minutes I was able to draw £1K in cash from the unit.

zyonchaos

peteuk wrote: »

I cant agree with half of these....Sorry.

Equally I have to say some people need to step into the real world. Before I joined I worked for the NHS. Yes they paid for courses but in reality we never claimed for anything above the course cost. So food, accom came from our own pockets.

When I had to travel short notice I was asked if I had a credit card which I could use for accom. I dont have one, so within 15 minutes I was able to draw £1K in cash from the unit.

Pete, as for stepping into the real world. That argument is really starting to p155 me off now as that is everyones answer to something that is complained about in the forces. What makes the forces anything less of a real world than civilian life??

My main complaint is that being half way through a course at another camp, I was informed that from their I was supposed to go straight to London to do a Red Hat course. Where was I supposed to find the money for the accomodation as I didnt have a credit card. When I was told I could draw money from my unit, I pointed out to them that yes I could, but since I wasnt there and wouldnt be there before the course started that was a bit difficult. They were unwilling to use that same money to book the hotel from there, which makes no sense really does it, personally I think this would cut down on a lot of fraud, but thats my opinion. Anyway the last time I had an advance payment of 1K (money that was actually owed me) it messed my wages up for 3 months.

If the forces send me on a detachment, why should I have to pay for the food especially when it will leave me out of pocket? Why should it cost me to go on a course, which I apparently need for my job?? Why cant the MOD see that the majority of money is wasted by a lot of senior level managers that are not required any more and were never really needed in the first place???

If you can give me sensible and reasonable answers then I will listen, but if you are just going to throw the "need to live in the real world" or "you signed up, deal with it" cards, dont bother.

strong96

My gripe atm is with the bfg health service, you cannot see a doctor unless its 2 weeks in advance, when you need urgetn treatment i have had to go private because the med ctres say go through there system and having to wait 4 weeks for appointment when with the german doctor it was next day,
My daughter cannot use the pyhsio on camp because she is only 14 so uses a german practice.
charges for my daughter to get to and from airport for school visits we are still paying because the pay office have never reimbursed.
If they mess up we are lucky if you see the money within a year but they take it immediately from you.
I could go on forever about the flaws in the system but its still old school and it is rank preference aswell.

inforeq

As the "wife of" OH is due to leave the army early next year after 22 years.

Over the years I have seen a couple of marriages breakdown due to claims that its financial issues - i cant help thinking that the marriage cant have been that strong to start with.

When posted in BFG we were seriously being ripped off by a company called O'Girkes - we used them as a broker (they had an office on Sennelager strip), we were paying them in the region of E75 a month for car insurance, when renewal came up they then wanted E80(ish). My husband took it upon himself and rang the insurance company directly who then offered us insurance at the rate of £350/year which is considerably cheaper. Apparantly the difference being O'Girkes fee for sorting the insurance for us!

As for loans and mortgages, a few years ago when we bought our first home, one morgage company wanted 50% deposit on a 71,000 mortgage due to being in the forces and not having a full credit history. This wasnt a buy to let property either, it was going to be the family home for a few years while my husband was on courses etc.

Heres a pearl for you, HSBC claim that there is no withdrawal fee for using their machines, they forget to say its in the UK only - using a canadian machine to withdraw the eqv of £100 used to cost around a tenner each time!

Overseas allowances are a joke, they are rank orientated, therefore a SGT, wife and 2 children receive XYZ each month, a Cpl, wife and 2 children receive considerably less. Does it cost less for a Cpl than a Sgt? NO! Its amazing what the allowance is supposed to be used for, costs of exchange rates, exortionate costs in the shops, even purchasing a TV and car when you are posted to places you cant take them due to voltage and shipping etc.

Mess bills - OMG, dont get me started, a bill is produced each month and it has to be paid before a specific date, just for the privellage of being in the "mess" then you have all other subs, workshop etc etc etc. Yes the soliders are paid slightly higher than in civvy street, its known as the "X" factor, buit it is taken away in other ways straight away.

MOD_Jason

In reply to nbinblack's 1042 post of 15 Sep.

I understand your concerns, however MOD has tried getting details through the usual channels, without success, and this Forum is one area where such issues are widely discussed. I arranged the post with MSE (its checks of authority/expertise to post are extremely thorough, I can assure you) and have clearance from DMC's Head of Online Media Engagement. I started the work to tackle these inequalities top down, however I can't progress the issues with other Government departments and industry without specific examples, so the work is currently on hold until I can gather sufficient evidence.

I have been working on this area for some time, having taken responsibility for it when it was highlighted in the Service Personnel Command Paper; work which is being taken forward under the umbrella of the Military Covenant.

If you are still not convinced, by all means PM me (I'm in mtgs until after 1300 today), and I will reply as soon as I can.

This is a chance for all of us to do something positive about these disadvantages that we all complain about from time to time. However I can only take this work forward with specific examples. Posting something like 'car insurance is always more expensive for Armed Forces personnel' is not something I can use, whether or not it may be the case.

Thanks everyone,

strong96

i so agree with the loa and rank orientated, i want to know why higher ranks get more they shop in the same shops and buy the same papers so why on earth is their loa so much more than junior ranks, my kids cost the same to feed as theirs. oh but then if your childs in boarding school you then dont get the luxery of kindergeld but yet i'm sure we still are responsible for raising her and buying everything for her, if you speak to the german arbeitsamt they will say we are still entitled because we are her parents and therefore responsible for raising her but the army won't stamp our forms. i'm sick of people complaining how much they have got, we dont receive loa or kindergeld for ours but we have no right to complain.

someone also please clarify what LOS is please and whos actually entitled,

Blue_Chip_IT

LOA (Local Overseas Alowance) When visiting Japan on a carrier the LOA rate dropped 90% for the duration of our visit then returned to normal after we had sailed, this happed all the time.

Why when deployed over seas why do we have to pay tax.