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

inforeq

Blue_Chip_IT wrote: »

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.

Was it not said at some point in the distant past that the £2500 the service man received as a tour bonus was the average eqv. of a private soldiers tax while on tour?

mrsdarbs

I cannot comment on many things as I have only been an army wife for 2 years and have only lived in Northern Ireland in that time and we do have quite extensive questionnaires to complete on family life in the forces and finances.

The one thing I can comment on is the financial education of people serving in the forces. My personal experience with my husband was a tough one to start with. He joined the army at 19 and had no concept of budgeting and financial control. When we met I had already been married and had a house with my ex and i work in finance so in a degree i am quite good at understanding it all etc, just not necessarily good with following my own advice!

My point is the banks knew my husband was in Germany for 5 years and he had given them updated contact details etc but the letters and statements still went to his mothers address (his registered English address outside of the forces) and time after time he would bounce direct debits etc and get charged and they would clear on the second attempt etc. It was only when we was together and I was trying to organize his paperwork that I saw over £3500 worth of charges over those 5 years. In those 5 years not one person from the bank telephoned to ask if there was a problem etc. Now I’m with Nationwide and when I accidentally bounced a payment (I had transferred too much money into my savings a/c), they called me straight away. I tried to claim this back when it all hit, but no such luck.

Thankfully my hubby is happy to let me take control of his finances and we are going through the black tunnel trying to clear our debt, thankfully we can see the light at the end, but it’s still a far bit away.

The way I see it is the Army are happy enough to discipline soldiers for bad money situations, but where was the help and education to prevent that situation from occurring. My hubby is so much more money savvy now and understands so much more – even silly things like finance and insurance.

It would be wise, in my opinion to have a day discussing the types of current accounts, interest, savings, pensions, mortgages insurance etc etc during basic training. Fair enough some people enter the army having already led the adult life in civvy street or having had parents give them a good understanding, but I honestly don’t know many people that actually fall into that bracket.

The only other thing I wish to comment on is about life in Northern Ireland. With the shootings last year and the pipe bombs last week it is definitely becoming more and more of a worry to families living over here. Thankfully my son goes to a nursery on camp, but I have friends whose children attend those schools and were seriously considering taking their children out of them, but they would only have action taken against them if they did so. Serving personnel in NI are entitled to NIRS which is just under £200 a month, but to be honest the cost of living is somewhat higher over here and I think this should be dependent on family size. I do not understand why a singly in the block should receive the same amount of money as a family of 3, 4 or 5 for example? The families are paying out more on their utilities and fuel for their vehicles and they have more mouths to feed,these costs do not apply to the singly living on the block? I do not think it is enough either.

mrsdarbs

inforeq wrote: »

Was it not said at some point in the distant past that the £2500 the service man received as a tour bonus was the average eqv. of a private soldiers tax while on tour?

Has this not doubled now anyway?

inforeq

mrsdarbs wrote: »

Has this not doubled now anyway?

You are right, my husband returned to UK on 1/10/09 and got the £2,500 (ish) those that returned after the next tour ended on/around 1/4/10 got the additional money.

motorbike2

zyonchaos wrote: »

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??

Go on to JPA and apply for an advance to cover the cost of the hotel if you are on "offical business" (course etc), it will be in your bank in around 3 days, so you don't have to lay out all the money. If you don't want to do this, you can apply for the money after the course and again it normally only take 3 days to hit you account.

Gnd

I have just had to buy a dental plan for my wife and children as moving every 2 years means finding new NHS dentists is imposible, regardles of what the liers in Downing Street say, there are no NHS dentist spaces about - Had to write to MP to get a place 2 postings ago:(

Has any one tried to get benifits for their wife as she 'left' due to posting so wasnt sacked or made redundant? (mine's a teacher and still can't find a job!!!!!)

inforeq

Gnd wrote: »

I have just had to buy a dental plan for my wife and children as moving every 2 years means finding new NHS dentists is imposible, regardles of what the liers in Downing Street say, there are no NHS dentist spaces about - Had to write to MP to get a place 2 postings ago:(

Has any one tried to get benifits for their wife as she 'left' due to posting so wasnt sacked or made redundant? (mine's a teacher and still can't find a job!!!!!)

We are going back many years here but I left a high profile local authority job to move to Colchester with my OH. I had actually only completed 13 weeks after 6 months maternity when the move happened, but had 8 years continuous service prior to maternity. I put my notice in at work and worked the required month, then just went to my local office to make a claim for jobseekers. In actuality when I rang initially I was told that I would need to make my 1st claim in Colchester, I ignored the info and made the claim in the North East, it was successful and just followed me to Colchester. If you are going abroad then apparantly the claim does need to be made in the UK and then you have to register with the GLSU? once you are in Germany for them to continue with the claims.

stevwarn

nbinblack wrote: »

I believe that if the MOD were carrying out research of this or any type then personnel would be informed through official military channels, and it would most probably be accessible on the Defance intranet, military email system or the types of survey that are sent through the post but notified through military channels rather than a civilian website.

Please correct me if I am wrong and provide a POC to confirm details with. In the meantime I advise people to consider the above when providing responses.

I am serving in the RN at NCHQ and was asked the same question last week. Therefore, I believe that it is a genuine request.

Andy_L

inforeq wrote: »

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!

AIUI the theory is that, if the cost of living is higher in foreign country X then, in the UK the sgt would have been maintaing a higher standard of living due to the higher salary and will thus have to spend more than the cpl to maintain that higher standard of living in country X

Si_M

At last a thread for us servicemen and women,

I am going to comment on a few points with my own opinions before I make my own gripes.

It appears that many people are airing their concerns that not enough financial / budgeting training is done,

I can only agree sometimes you get financial advice and it's a 100% parade, then here's the hook the people providing the advice are selling insurance, which as we all know helps a great deal to getting people out of debt!

BUFFS - Ref TV licence good point, I wonder if prisoners have to pay a licence? they have TV's in cells.

LotteBear - True about the holidays we can't make plans over a month in advance due to the nature of our work.

mike64 - You should check out the Forces Pension Society, google them.

zyonchaos - It does suck that we are expected to fork out in advance for hotels, I believe that this should be another function on JPA that they find the hotel and pay for it in advance.

peteuk - You may not have had problems with credit etc, I know more who have including myself! Also you believe that pay is "far better than civvie street" no it's not, it depends what job you are doing I suppose (no offence meant to any here) but for example there isn't much call for say Heavy Artillery in civvie street so some of our jobs are unique to the forces. So you also admit that you don't live in the "real world" but some companies do pay travelling expenses, and why should move and pack myself it's the army that moves me every 2 years! I think peteuk you are a little blinkered.

strong96 - I am in Germany and my daughter has used the physio system, the problem may lay with the fact that you children are in boarding school. You should be able to claim the school visit expenses on JPA. Kindergeld is not a luxury it is for the children that reside with you, you are wrong in thinking that the arbeitsamt will pay you for them whilst they are out of the country. Also you are not disadvantaged with your children in boarding school as the MOD do pay allowances for this and it's quite a substantial amount.

inforeq - Thanks for the car insurance tip. I am not sure where you are going with mess bills though? A bill is produced every month and yes it does have to be paid before a specific date exactly the same as your phone bill does! You mention it's just for the privilege of being in the mess, come on you know that this is not true, and also the mess was there before your OH got promoted he could have turned down the promotion and saved himself all those mess bills.


Here's my own points.

I am overseas this is where I think that we are disadvantaged the most, (I have served in UK and NI also)

I recently went back to UK to buy a second hand car, I went to my bank who I have been with for 30 years, they offered me a loan at 28% apr I refused, at least !!!!!! Turpin wore a mask. I had no credit rating! Even after 30 years. I managed to buy a car using my parents address and secured a loan in the car showroom at 7% apr.

When moving back to UK you have to pay everything at once, this is expected however the TV licence can't be over monthly instalments you have to pay the first 6 months up front because you got it no credit rating.

We weren't eligible for the governments Car Scrappage Scheme, I wrote to my MP who approached the MOD who replied you are in Germany all the tax free cars what more do they want!

We used to get quite good deals on ferries but these seem to have stopped.

LOA has just been slashed, explanations are that it's now cheaper to live here than it was 12 months ago, No it's not! One example used was that fuel prices in the UK had raised by 20% but remained static in Germany, this is also untrue the fuel has raised at the same rate.

My main concern has been house purchase. We now own a house simply to be on the property ladder but you get no help off the MOD, it's all a gamble, we can't live in it due to our postings. I am seeing more and more people finishing their service with no house and few plans on knowing what to do let alone where to settle.

BFPO addresses are not only not recognised by the banks computers in fact most online vendors don't recognise them. There are ways around this so long as it doesn't involve using a postal carrier service and only the GPO.

When I think of more I'll post at a later time.