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FEDERATION


military community that their company discriminate against the forces to get them to give us phones. It took 3 weeks of arguments before they realised we were just a married couple wanting contract phones.”


“Only one lender was willing to offer a mortgage because we didn't appear on a credit check or electoral roll at a UK address. We were registered to vote by proxy. Then we were unable to provide the proof of ID documents required for money laundering checks ie. utility bills at our current residential UK address. It took 3 months and a very good mortgage broker to get the loan sorted.”


“In additional to a bank loan, I've also applied for a phone contract, Wi-Fi contract and lease hire on a car. All of which were refused with no obvious explanation.”


“Rather than having small companies sign up to military covenant to provide discounts the focus should be on resolving the big issues such as the common experience service people have when trying to obtain credit from banks/building societies.”


“It seems that certain agencies are more flexible than others. Whilst John Lewis could not give me a store card, we received a car loan from Porsche Finance without any problems!


“We were made to feel like criminals for daring to ask to have decent phones and a good call plan.”


“It is very embarrassing having credit denied because of circumstances outside your control, ie. postings etc.


“Lenders have a poor attitude to Service personnel. They rely heavily on credit references which do not show the true picture. I employed a mortgage broker who could explain to lenders why my history showed frequent moves etc as they would not listen to me.”


“UK banks and credit companies have no concept of the service family lifestyle. Living overseas has a massive impact on your UK residence status particularly for the financial sector.”


TAKING CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL In our second survey we asked about taking children out of school during term-time


We took your evidence to the Minister for Defence Personnel Welfare and Veterans (Min DPWV) to highlight the problem of inconsistent interpretation of the rules by schools about what counts as “exceptional circumstances” and what does not. She in turn wrote to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, asking for a clear policy for schools to apply to Service families seeking authorised absences.


We have not yet been made aware of a response but, in the meantime, we would recommend parents include a letter with the application, detailing the reasons, especially when the serving parent is about to be deployed or has just returned from ops or is home on R&R, rather than


www.raf-ff.org.uk Envoy Summer 2014 25


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