FEDERATION NEWS
YOUR CONCLUSIONS ON PAY and WORK/LIFE BALANCE 2013
FROM OUR SURVEY CONDUCTED OVER THE SUMMER O
ur remit is to provide independent, evidence- based reports on topics that are relevant to serving
RAF personnel and their families, be they regular, reservist, single, married or in a partnership. That pay, allowances and the quality of life our people enjoy are topics of considerable interest hardly comes as a surprise and is reflected in the 1239 responses we received to this survey.
We are very grateful to everybody who participated. Bare statistics are useful but it is the comments, expressed (sometimes in no uncertain terms!) that add colour and emphasis to the report. When collated, they came to 66 pages and we have therefore been able to record in the report just a small cross-section of the hundreds received.
In addition to those personnel taking part from mainstream units, we recorded responses from Abu Dhabi, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Cyprus, Gibraltar, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, USA, the Falkland Islands and from personnel serving on Op Herrick.
The RAF community again had much to say about the continuing pay restraint and the concerns of many that pay is not keeping pace with the cost of living. Of note, while many recognised that their current basic pay is still satisfactory, there were fewer positive comments about the allowances package and more families than ever are now ‘feeling the pinch’, with more than half
reporting that they are worse off financially than four years ago.
The evidence we have gathered will be used primarily to inform our oral evidence session with the Armed Forces Pay Review Body (AFPRB) in October 2013 but the report will also be circulated at the most senior levels within the RAF, MoD and government. With many significant initiatives either underway or about to start, such as the New Employment Model (NEM), the Armed Forces Covenant and the impact of change arising from the return to contingency and base closures, we hope that this report is of
use, either directly or as background information and supporting evidence. Perhaps more importantly, we hope that it will be read by the RAF personnel and their families that we are here to represent: To them, we say a big ‘Thank you’ for supporting our work.
A couple of the comments “While I accept that we all feel the pain (except bankers!), this pay freeze has resulted in a real time cut in salary. It may have been more bearable if there had been corresponding freezes in SFA, CILOCT charges etc, but not so and I take home less now than I did back in 2010. Coupled with external inflationary factors and overall tax increases (lowering 40% tax threshold v increases to initial tax threshold) and the reduction by 70% in child benefit allowances, I am worse off by £2.5k per year!”
“The main advantage of serving in the RAF is the quality of the people that one serves with.”
“I was at first very cautious about writing anything but I assume that it will be anonymous. I LOVE being a military wife and I am very proud of what my husband does. There are some issues that I feel could be improved but I take the bad with the good and I have had an amazing time.”
The full report can be found on our website at
www.raf-ff.org.uk
www.raf-ff.org.uk
Envoy Autumn 2013
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