In Pay and benefits • continuing to provide a minimum £250 increase for the lowest ranks in the Armed Forces during the 2 year public sector pay freeze
• Council Tax Relief has been doubled twice by Government and now stands at nearly £600 per Service person for a six month deployment
Deployment • doubled the Families Welfare Grant • we improved Rest and Recuperation leave for those on operations
• doubling the tax free Operational Allowance so that those serving on eligible operations now receive a lump sum of just over £5,000 for a six month tour
Support after Service • continuous automatic entitlement to Blue Badges is in place for seriously injured Service personnel and veterans
• the SPVA has launched a new charity portal for veterans with a link to a dedicated full page of information on each organisation, including services provided and details of how to contact them
Commercial products • working with credit reference agencies to ensure service people are not
disadvantaged by mobility requirements in accessing credit
• providing a financial awareness and training website for Service personnel and their families called MoneyForce
The most recent Armed Forces Covenant achievements have been: o making funding of £6.5M available to guarantee that all Serving personnel and veterans injured in Iraq or Afghanistan will be able to upgrade to the latest prosthetics technology, including the Genium bionic prosthetic system, where clinically appropriate;
o MoneyForce, a financial awareness website for Service personnel and their families was launched in Mar 13;
o increasing the Funeral Expense Grant to £1000, which will now be paid to each Service family that suffers a bereavement, regardless of whether a Service funeral is held;
o extending the circumstances in which personnel may retain Service Family Accommodation to include when the spouse of partner of a Service person has to give a specified period of notice to an employer or is in high education;
o exempting parents with adult children serving in the Armed Forces and who are away on operations, from the changes to housing benefit.
• 80% of local authorities (324 local authorities out of 407) have now signed a Community Covenant;
• Disaggregation of the Community Covenant Grant Scheme – this won’t change anything for those applying for funds but means those judging the bids will now be the local experts;
• The second tranche of LIBOR Funding has now closed and the panel will be judging the bids in June. This round focused on families and mental health.
Relevant documents • The Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report 2012
• The Armed Forces Covenant Interim Report 2011
• The Armed Forces Covenant – Your questions answered
• Articles in Envoy magazine • RAF Families Federation Survey Reports on the Armed Forces Covenant
• The Nations Supprt to the RAF publilshed Apr 12
• The Impact of the SDSR and the Armed Forces Covenant published Dec 11.
Note: all these documents can be fournd on the RAF FF website at:
www.raf-ff.org.uk.
4
Envoy Summer 2013
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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