Army to get JPA

[KLNA-Cessna-Jockey]

I nearly p!ssed myself laughing on the way to work yesterday morning.

Living in Wiltshire we are surrounded by the army and my local radio network put a 5 minute slot of Garrison Radio News on in the mornings.

There I was, on my way to work, when it comes on announcing that the army are about to introduce JPA and one of the reasons given was that it will "speed up the process of paying allowances"

Now I'm still in the process of joining so haven't experienced JPA yet, but from all the threads i've read on here, it nearly made me crash through laughter that the rupert (female variety) who was being interviewed appeared to honestly believe the sh!te she was talking or had been trained in how to lie like a pro! :shock:

 

[Arcadain]

What oyu on about? All the services are getting the JPA.

 

[Lamri]

He's talking about the obvious bollox spoken by the rupertess.
You know, the bit about "speeding up the process of paying allowances".

Actually, it HAS made getting allowances quicker and easier to apply for.

 

[SILVER_FOX]

Logged on for the first time today and ... well ... not massively impressed thus far but it wasn't quite the terrible experience I was led to expect.

I am sure it will improve with time. Either that or we'll just become accustomed to working round it.

SF

 

[Karma]

I......the army are about to introduce JPA..........

Well they were always going to.

Anyway, it's not all that user friendly and it needs some creativity about what categories to use for certain things, but in practice most people I work with have been paid expenses a lot quicker under JPA than we ever did with paper transactions. On average about two to three days. There are issues with it, and I'm waiting to see what doubling the user population will do to performance of the technology. I'm not optimistic that the transition will be painless.

The problem for me is that I'm now less flexible about my travel, I can't easily change travel plans whilst I'm on the move, and I do a lot of traveling. In the past, on paper, I could easily claim retrospectively, but not any more. Given that I already make a loss on almost all of my expenses claims, since my actuals exceed the cap, then I'm less willing to do the travel.

 

[theoldti]

Some of us are still waiting to get paid LSA from November and LSSB fronm pre JPA days because the numpties switched of NMIS on the day they brought in JPA. Expenses are quicker and retro claims can be done through your UPO I believe???

 

[Uncle_Albert]

Actually, it HAS made getting allowances quicker and easier to apply for.

I feel I should mention that whilst it is indeed now easy and quick to apply for allowances, I've yet to see any evidence personally that it's easier or quicker to actually get them.

Has anyone been paid back the tax and NI taken off their untaxable expenses from the last six months yet, or are we going to continue subbing the Andrew out of our own pockets for another six?

 

[ianthesmudger]

The i-expenses side of JPA is a good thing and once people get their heads round it a bit more they will appreciate the speed of payment etc. What is not good is all the 'legacy' problems - these are not easily resolved and the UPO staff cannot guarantee with any confidence when your particular legacy issue will be sorted. JPA is an off the shelf bought piece of kit which thay have praised to the rafters, citing it's use by major companies like Asda, M&S etc. Point to note - last time I looked, Asda workers didn't have to suddenly relocate 4000 miles to a war zone....feel sorry for the Army guys who are currently in Iraq and Afghanistan - not much chance of them sorting out anything at that range despite what they say!

 

[JunglyDaz]

Ian, my pay and many many CPOAEA/AET's pay has been screwed up by JPA and it doesn't matter where you are, it still isn't any closer to being solved! At least you can put in a service request now (mine got replied to, unhelpfully as it turned out, in 4 days) rather than wait for one Wtr that has hundreds of people to sort out.

 

[ianthesmudger]

Daz, visited a UPO the other week. Felt sorry for the Writers - all the SRs and LHs are unhappy with the system and feel they've lost any sort of ability to really make a difference. One of the LWTRs said the training was OK but likened it to learning to drive on a PS2 then being thrown the car keys and being told to get on with it!

 

[JunglyDaz]

I'm sure with time everyone will get used to it and it will work correctly. Teething problems have a tendency to sort themselves out given time. I'm speaking for the crabs and RN, the pongo's will take forever!!

 

[Magic_Mushroom]

In some respects it's a step forward although the endless drop down menus could be made more intuitive.

My main gripe is the appaling new pay statements. These are far more confusing than the old versions and every month I seem to get several taking away or giving various pay and allowances. The descriptions of these make it difficult to follow what's happening and Glasgow are particularly unhelpful.

I understand that when the Army commence JPA, each WOII will have the log on details of his lads so that they don't cock up/make dubious claims.

MM

 

[Uncle_Albert]

I'm sure with time everyone will get used to it and it will work correctly. Teething problems have a tendency to sort themselves out given time. I'm speaking for the crabs and RN, the pongo's will take forever!!

But how much time is acceptable? There are problems still open that are six months old, resulting in three or four figure pay discrpancies for the unlucky matelots/royals/crustaceans. If such a pay discrepancy existed in civvy street for full-time employees for such a time it would be seen as completely unacceptable. Do the armed forces now hold themselves to a lower standard than civvy street?

 

[Uncle_Albert]

Your password is yours alone. Don't let anyone else know it, don't write it down. If anyone else learns what it is, inform your superiors immediately and get it changed.

I understand that when the Army commence JPA, each WOII will have the log on details of his lads so that they don't cock up/make dubious claims.

Brilliant.

 

[TattooDog]

It's going to be interesting to see what happens from the end of March, since we will have restricted log on times for a while and a whole load of Army lads trying to log on will be a challenge to the servers.

Is it true that some young squaddies (quite a number) don't actually have bank accounts? If so, they'll need to open one pretty soon!

Don't forget:

JPA goes down at 1700Z today until 0700Z 29 March