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

Si_M

ceecee1 wrote: »

The Equality Act 2010 which comes into effect from 1.10.10 and specifically INCLUDES the Armed Forces makes it illegal to retire someone based on their age..... the last military instruction seen just mentioned that further information would be issued at a later date. It will be very interesting to see what happens when this becomes common knowledge

They will just say that we have ended our contract of employment

Trying_to_be_good

My understanding is that the age bit of the Equality Act DOESN'T come into force until next year (and maybe later than that) as it was a Labour piece of legislation and the new government don't necessarily support all of it.

I also expect the Armed Forces to be exempt from at least some of it, but haven't looked at it in lots of detail yet (will follow the link and do a bit more learning in a mo).

If sandyfour had completed 33 years in the military, I'm not sure how his pension can be so small, nor why he can't claim JSA if he's looking for a new job - can anyone help out on the rules? The contract runs to 55 (for FTC officers), so it's not a shock that it ends at 55 - the immediate payment of the full pension (on AFPS75) rather than waiting until a later pension age, be it 60, 65 or something in between, is an advantage rather than a disadvantage, I'd've thought.

EDIT: The site says "If an employer is promoting or transferring people who are serving in the armed forces, they may be able to exclude women and transsexual people if this is a proportionate way to make sure the combat effectiveness of the armed forces. In addition, age and disability are, in effect, not protected characteristics for service in the armed forces."
at http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/equality-act-guidance-for-workers/career-development-training-promotion-and-transfer/situations-where-equality-law-is-different/

So the Armed Forces can continue to lawfully discriminate on the grounds of age.

BLT_2

wordsfan wrote: »

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.

PMSL, the same old story about how much someone could earn outside. If he is in admin he would probably be lucky to actually get a job outside, let alone a job with a company car. Conversely if he is so talented that he could earn a fortune outside tell him to do so and not just tell everyone how successful he is going to be. You need to take a reality check, and I suspect one will be forthcoming when he leaves and finds out there are 200 applicants for every job, the majority of them with far more relative skills than he has acquired in MILITARY admin.

As to the rest of your pathetic gripes and whines, they are just total bollox. Can't get broadband? Whining cause you no longer get free dental treatment? Addresses not recognised by the postal agencies in non BFPO areas, were you in a non post code area, must have been the only one in the country. Having to fight tooth and nail to keep your UK bank account?.

You really have been plunging the depths of the barrel to make up this bunch of utter tripe.

Y

Fergie76

Si_M wrote: »

Is Yo, you

and I think you will find it should have read "too thick"

Sorry that this thick pongo had to correct you!

Oh, get you! A simple spelling mistake.

Si_M

Fergie76 wrote: »

Oh, get you! A simple spelling mistake.

Whether it was a simple spelling mistake or a basic grammar mistake you saw fit to insult.

Don't be too quick to judge with your preconceived ideas about groups of people i.e. soldiers.

mrsdarbs

Come on people this thread is about people's personal experiences, whether we agree with/have experienced them or not, no need for the pettiness.

13Kent

If you live at a BFPO address you can forget about entering many of the competitions featured on this website, or applying for any of the freebies - without a UK postcode you cannot enter!

Snunn1

Andy_L wrote: »

because, as a singlie, there's no requirement for you to maintain 2 households.

Not strictly true as I, and many others I know, can contest being in this exact situation. I live in the block during the week but also share a privately maintained/owned property with my other half, which I travel to on my standdowns and leave. Due to the fact that we're not married, I'm not entitled to free accommodation on camp as relationships not bound by marriage are not recognised by the Armed Forces. This is even though I have to prove I have a financial responsibility to the property when I claim for GYH(M).

As we all know, the Forces are still very much stuck in the days of old when a Serviceman has either a singly or was the main breadwinner within a traditional family unit consisting of himself, his wife and 2.4 children living in MQ's. I might have the kids and the missus right now but since we're not married, we're not a family as far as the Services are concerned...

Fergie76

Snunn1 wrote: »

Not strictly true as I, and many others I know, can contest being in this exact situation. I live in the block during the week but also share a privately maintained/owned property with my other half, which I travel to on my standdowns and leave. Due to the fact that we're not married, I'm not entitled to free accommodation on camp as relationships not bound by marriage are not recognised by the Armed Forces. This is even though I have to prove I have a financial responsibility to the property when I claim for GYH(M).

As we all know, the Forces are still very much stuck in the days of old when a Serviceman has either a singly or was the main breadwinner within a traditional family unit consisting of himself, his wife and 2.4 children living in MQ's. I might have the kids and the missus right now but since we're not married, we're not a family as far as the Services are concerned...

Where do you draw the line though? A SP meets a girl on a night out, moves in two weeks later, do they then deserve all the entitlements of a 'married' person?

I agree, that some non-married relationships are a lot more stable than married ones, but you have to draw the line somewhere and the MOD have decided that SP have to be married to receive certain allowances.

mrsdarbs

Fergie76 wrote: »

Where do you draw the line though? A SP meets a girl on a night out, moves in two weeks later, do they then deserve all the entitlements of a 'married' person?

I agree, that some non-married relationships are a lot more stable than married ones, but you have to draw the line somewhere and the MOD have decided that SP have to be married to receive certain allowances.

I agree with this. Having had this conversation many times on a forum for forces partners, we have always said the same thing (even before I married my soldier husband). There has to be a line drawn somewhere unfortunately.

We just bought our wedding forward so that we could be together in SFA - a lot of people turn their nose up at this, but I don't see why. We would have got married one day anyway and to me it was more important to be together as a unit and for my husband to be there for our son more than one weekend every 4/5 weeks etc than to have a big wedding. We were lucky and parents actually helped out financially enabling us to have a larger wedding, than the registry office wedding we'd planned.