More on Forces pay (letters) in today's Times...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-2356590,00.html
The King's shilling won't sustain our soldiers
Sir, Libby Purves’s comment on army pay (“A man’s job on a boy’s salaryâ€, Sept 12) was welcome. Many army families find it very difficult to make ends meet because of the disgracefully low basic salaries awarded to junior soldiers: £13,866 for a private compared with £19,918 for an 18-year-old trainee firefighter, who is also paid overtime.
This year army families have also had to face above-inflation increases to the charges they have to pay for (often poor quality) accommodation, as well as having to pay council tax. Soldiers’ homes are generally situated in isolated rural garrisons where there are few opportunities for their families to work; high rates of unemployment are compounded by a lack of affordable childcare. Schools struggle to accommodate the high mobility of army families but receive no extra support or recognition from the DfES. NHS dentists cannot accommodate army families, who cannot afford the cost of private dental care.
As Libby Purves says, “politicians have a massive duty of care towards the military†and that includes paying soldiers a decent wage.
SAMMIE CRANE
Chairman, Army Families Federation
Sir, I joined the Army in 1954, serving for 31 years and retiring as a major in 1985. I joined the Civil Service, and 12 years later my pay was four times what it had been in the last year of my Army service. But, unlike my civilian counterparts, I had started a mortgage at the age of 38. Most of my friends and family were almost finished paying theirs.
There is no doubt that the standards of loyalty, dedication and professionalism in our Armed Services are as high as anything you would find in civilian life. However, if the Government continues to ignore this message then we should not be surprised if our servicemen and women vote with their boots.
MAJOR ANTHONY HOLLIS
Camberley, Surrey
Sir, A soldier is not paid by the hour, he is paid by the day: 365 days per year, whether he is being shot at in Afghanistan, lying on his bed in barracks or clubbing in Ibiza on leave.
I served as a commissioned officer in the RAF and my son is currently preparing to deploy to Iraq. In my experience, few servicemen complain about pay; rather they complain about kit. My son would be safer travelling through the streets of Basra in the new, heavily-armoured Cougar Mastiff fighting vehicle. Instead, he will have to make do with the old, lightly-armoured “Snatch†Land Rover. This is where our politicians don’t fulfil their duty to our armed forces.
Journalists should stop tabulating pay rates and campaign for better equipment.
MALCOLM PATON
Melksham, Wilts
Sir, Our Service personnel would at one time in history have been regarded as heroes. Today they are tools in political and economic wars; where the real commanders are so removed from the battlefield that there is no understanding between the person at the top and the soldier at the bottom.
Television adverts never mention the possibility of being killed, or what the actual rate of pay and conditions are. The package is made to seem attractive to those whose choices are limited. Surely this is a case of false advertising?
JONATHAN CONWAY
Glasgow
Sir, I have tried many times to point out the gross anomaly between the low level of pay for servicemen and women and that of people in similarly dangerous professions, whenever a policeman or a fireman complains to the media about their poor pay and conditions.
The pay and pension schemes of UK Service personnel are not as good as that of our former colonial cousins in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, let alone the US, and neither do we have access to naval and military hospitals, as is the case with American veterans.
KENNETH ARMITAGE
Kesgrave, Suffolk
