COVENANT
•The Department for Work and Pensions has agreed that spouses returning from overseas are exempt from the ‘habitual residence test’, meaning that they do not need to have been resident in the UK for the required three months in order to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Children’s education •Children of personnel can now get school places before moving into an area, following an amendment to the Schools Admission Code.
•£21m of Service Pupil Premium payments have been made to support the pastoral needs of over 60,000 Service pupils in state schools.
Healthcare •The Covenant has been placed at the centre of the NHS constitution, an important step for the delivery of local healthcare. Now 81% of Service personnel report good access to medical care and 98% of Armed Forces families have good access to GPs.
•The Armed Forces community health pages of the NHS choices website has been updated to create asingle point of access to all information for Service personnel.
•A£2m grant has been issued to set up an NHS Specialist Rehabilitation Unit.
www.raf-ff.org.uk
Housing In the past 12 months more than 5,200 Service personnel have been assisted in getting on the property ladder through the Forces Help To Buy scheme; and 99% of UK Service Family Accommodation meets the top two Standards for condition.
The RAF FF has played an important part in helping to achieve many of these Covenant initiatives. And our Observations in the Annual Report about what still needs to be done have been taken by Ministers and the Cabinet Office as the basis of an action plan for 2016.
These achievements and more are described in further detail in the Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report, which was published on 10 December 2015.
On the publishing of the report Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans Mark Lancaster said:
“The report is the definitive document of what we have done to uphold the nation’s commitment to the Armed Forces
community.Please take a look at it or one of the summary versions to get abetter picture of what the Covenant is, and how it can support you.
“This Government is committed to delivering the Covenant, and we want your feedback on the report, so that we know where to direct action next
year.The Covenant is
for you and yours and it is you who decides how it continues to create a fairer society for the Armed Forces community.”
Find out more: To find out more about the Armed Forces Covenant and what it means to you visit:
https://www.gov.uk/ government/policies/armed-forces- covenant –there’s agreat ‘key facts’ leaflet that shares everything in a snapshot.
If you think you are not getting fair access to goods and services because you are amember of the Armed Forces we want to hear about it. Contact the RAF Families Federation at
enquiries@raf-ff.org.uk or the MOD Covenant team:
Covenant-mailbox@mod.uk
Youcan find the NHS choices, Armed Forces Community healthcare pages here:
http://www.nhs.uk/ NHSEngland/Militaryhealthcare/ Pages/
Militaryhealthcare.aspx
To find out whether Forces Help to Buy could help you visit:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ forces-help-to-buy
For online support with making informed financial decisions visit the MoneyForce website: http://www.
moneyforce.org.uk/ or you can read their own article, shown earlier in this issue of Envoy.
Spring 2016 31
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