MONEY
A word on Remuneration
from the RAF Pay Colonel Gp Capt Rich Paul, DACOS P&A
F PAY
Many families will be familiar with the Armed Forces Pay Review Body (AFPRB) but perhaps not so au fait with their role and history. As Service personnel have no negotiating body such as a Trade Union or Federation to look after their pay interests, in 1971, the Government set up the AFPRB to conduct an annual review of the military salary. Membership of the AFPRB is drawn from eminent civilians of widely differing backgrounds and one member is always a retired senior member of the Armed Forces. Their role is to advise the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Defence on the levels of pay and charges (eg SFA and food charges) and some allowances, known as compensatory allowances (eg Longer Separation Allowance, Unpleasant Work and Unpleasant Living Allowance).
Every year the AFPRB gathers evidence through a variety of methods starting with the
38 Envoy Winter 2012
ollowing publication of the Federation’s thought provoking survey on `Pay, Pensions and Other Stuff ’
summarised in the Autumn edition of Envoy, as the RAF Policy lead on all areas of remuneration, I thought it would be timely to offer an update on more recent developments in these areas along with some background information on the methods and constraints within which we operate.
I should start by saying that the RAF Families Federation has always been at the forefront of communicating any changes in terms and conditions of service to the wider RAF family. The results of the survey confirmed that the subjects of Pay, Pensions and Allowances always generate plenty of discussion, so I hope the following will provide some clarity amid the sea of rumours that sometimes surround all things remunerative.
Principal Personnel Officer of each Service (AMP&C for the RAF) who outline their pay priorities for the year ahead. The AFPRB then undertakes a series of visits to RAF stations1 to gather evidence direct from Service personnel and their families. The AFPRB values these visits highly and the feedback gathered from them is a major element of the Body’s evidence base. The AFPRB is also provided with extensive written evidence, which provides the facts and figures to support the evidence gathered during visits. The written evidence covers recruitment, retention, working hours, leave, impact of service career on family life, accommodation and food charges amongst others.
The main focus in 2012 was a review of X-Factor, which is routinely undertaken every 5 years. X-Factor is a pensionable addition to basic pay that recognises the relative disadvantage of conditions of military service compared to those in civilian life. It is an important component of the military salary which is why the Families Federation in their survey sought views on particular elements such as working hours, separation and adventurous training.
Having gathered all the evidence, the AFPRB has further sessions with the Principal Personnel Officers and the Secretary of State for Defence. The AFPRB then considers all the evidence presented and compares it with data gathered on wider civilian pay, before announcing recommendations late February/ March each year.
There is no doubt that these are challenging times for the country and workers in the Public Sector. It will be no surprise to the AFPRB that many personnel are questioning its independence and the AFPRB has commented in particular that the restrictions of the imposed pay freeze, and the further 2-year period of pay restraint following the
pay freeze (from 1 Apr 13), on its remit as an independent pay review body, should be exceptional and it hopes that a return to making a full range of recommendations will follow the period of pay restraint (from 1 Apr 15). During the period of pay restraint, the pay award of the Armed Forces will be capped at an average of 1%. On the difficult decision to increase both accommodation charges and food charges during a period of pay freeze, the AFPRB considered that other public sector workers were experiencing increases to their accommodation and food costs due to external market forces and as such the members of the Armed Forces should not be immune from these increases.
PENSIONS
In the Autumn edition of Envoy, Lt Col Terry Robson from the Future Armed Forces Pension Team gave an informative update which covered the key features of the new scheme, protecting the accrued pensions rights of those serving up to the point of transition to the new scheme and results of the consultation exercise.
The accrued rights to benefits already earned under the existing schemes is worth re-emphasising as it has provided real reassurance to all Service personnel that they will be able to access these benefits at the time that they had anticipated and that these accrued rights will be linked to either their final rank or their final salary, depending on their current scheme rules.
In addition to the good news about accrued rights, the Government announced additional protection for all public sector workers who were within 10-years of their Normal Pension Age on 1 Apr 12 (regular Service personnel aged 45 and over on 1 April 2012 and reservists aged 50 and over on 1 Apr 12). This additional protection (at no cost to MoD) will ensure that those covered will not need to transfer to the new Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS).
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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