YOU AND THE RAF
reducing the overall worth of the package, but instead is about getting more from the money we spend on people and importantly spending it on the right things – the things that personnel and their families tell us are important to them. That is why our summer consultation and the feedback that Service personnel and their families offer through this process is so important.
The NEM will introduce a new pay model that seeks to address key areas of dissatisfaction with the current model; it will simplify the allowance system; it will establish revised engagement structures for the three Services; and it will bring about improvements in training and education. Crucially all of these strands of work combined aim to offer increased domestic stability along with greater personal choice and responsibility for our Service personnel and their families. Through the NEM, families can expect to see improvements in accommodation, to the way we support partners and spouses in finding employment, and improved flexibility for Regular personnel, for example through part-time working. I’d like to expand a little on some of these things.
We are looking closely at the provision of accommodation – both subsidised, ie. Service Families Accommodation (SFA) / Single Living Accommodation (SLA) and privately owned. I want to address another concern I know is held by many of you that the NEM is removing access to SFA and SLA. This is simply not the case. Subsidised accommodation will continue to be provided to those who need it. In fact,
we want to improve the standard of Service Families Accommodation and Single Living Accommodation and so through the NEM we will introduce a new system that will allow us to compare our accommodation standards to those applied within the civilian rental market with an aim to make improvements in both the quality of accommodation and the service provided. And we will continue to apply a discount to the cost of living in Service accommodation.
But as well as making improvements in terms of subsidised accommodation, we also want to make the option of buying a home more realistic for greater numbers of Service families and so we are designing a Home Purchase Incentive (HPI) scheme which will offer greater help and support for those who want to buy their own home.
We already offer help for Service personnel to buy a home through the Long Service Advance of Pay (LSAP) but the reality is that the amount offered no longer matches the modern day cost of getting onto the property ladder. Our HPI scheme is still very much a work in progress, and the feedback gathered through the consultation will be key in helping us to finalise the scheme.
What we currently know is that we want to increase the amount we make available as an interest-free loan in order to more realistically contribute towards a deposit. The amount offered has not yet been agreed and we will need to take into account both the individual’s ability to repay the loan and
the impact on mortgage lenders’ willingness to lend in deciding what the limit should be. It may also be possible to give some personnel who have qualified for an Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2005 or 2015 Early Departure Payment access to those funds before they leave service.
Of course offering a financial loan in isolation won’t be enough and so we are also working to improve access to information and guidance about purchasing a home, to support our Service personnel and their families in making informed choices. We are keen to get feedback on our plans during the consultation before launching the scheme in 2015.
With regard to pay, we have been working up options which aim to provide the right balance between attractiveness, ie. looking at how pay affects recruitment and retention, and affordability. We are developing a pay model where rank will remain the main factor in deciding how much a Service person is paid. We will address key areas of frustration with the current pay model such as the overlap between pay ranges and through- career pay band movement. We also aim to improve the impact on recruitment and retention. We are planning to introduce these changes from Apr 16. It is important to make clear that no personnel will be paid less as a result of these changes.
In achieving greater domestic stability clearly we need to look at ways in which we can reduce the time that families are forced to spend apart and reduce the disruption to
www.raf-ff.org.uk
Envoy Autumn 2013
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