Army ELCAS Payments

dougie1111

My first time posting so if I break any rules then please let me know.
I served in the Army for just under 8 years. I was entitled to resettlement money which I used and it helped me to get a job when I left which was great. This year I found out that I was also entitled to ELCAS payments of £1000 per year for 10 years after I left. I am in the process of claiming £1000 for some training i am doing now but I have missed out on £9000 which could have seen me through my open university which I dropped because of the costs. At no point after I left did I ever get any correspondence telling me I could claim or asking why I wasnt claiming. I found out this year by a chance conversation. When I called the lady she was very nice and seemed sympathetic but the answer was basically 'unlucky mate'. I posted online about this and none of my other ex army mates knew about it either.
I guess my question is does anyone know if there is a way for me to get this money to use for courses now and should I have been told.
Cheers
Doug

piglet25

The military keep very quiet about this entitlement, I would keep trying and ringing, maybe appeal it but if they dig their heels in we both know they won't budge. Good luck with trying, its just a shame you have to fight for what you should have been given x

copy

Unfortunately you will not get any of that money, I'm ex forces myself and I didn't know about ELCAS and I only got to use 1 of the payments.

pmduk

Did you discuss your circumstances with the OU before withdrawing? They're usually knowledgeable about other sources of funding. Looking at the ELCAS website, there seems to be no method of claiming retrospectively

System

You haven't missed out on £9000. The criteria is

[FONT=&quot]ELC awards are available at two “tiers”: the “Lower Tier” level of up to £1000 per annum for those with four or more years’ eligible service; and at the “Upper Tier” level of up to £2000 per annum for those with eight or more years’ eligible service. Providing they meet all the criteria, personnel may make ELC claims in up to three separate financial years [/FONT]

It is available for up to 10 years after leaving. JSP 898 Part 4 Chap 3 refers See http://www.enhancedlearningcredits.com/PF%20FE-HE/


So you could have only got a maximum of £6000, not forgetting that the normal rules would have applied and they would only finance you for 80% of the course fees for each year you claim.

ableandy

Just to add, you get 3 claims in the 10 years. Each claim will be either be a maximum of £1,000 or £2,000 depending on how long you served in the Army.

Each claim will be a maximum of 80% of the course costs and can only be used with ELCAS approved training providers.

dougie1111

Ah ok so I thought it was £1000 per year but its not its £1000 x 3 claims over 10 years. I have claimed this one so I missed out on £2000 worth of training. Not as much but definitely still worth having if I had known about it. Its a shame there isnt a PPI/bank charges style campaign to get that money back.

copy

Yeah I wish there was a way to get it back too iv missed out £2,000 worth of training also, never got told about it when I was medically discarded, only the other way I can think of is seeing you're local MP and see if there is anything they can do