I have started to see a growing reluctance for people (me included) to do activities over the last 18 months, which as economic factors start to bite, can only increase.
I’m not convinced HQAC et al, give a monkey’s as long activities happen. And we are no better. As seen on here, if cadets say their sqn doesn’t do things people on here are only too quick to jump on the sqn staff, with comments like speak to Wing etc etc without knowing the first thing, which only plays into the hands of HQAC watchers.
VA is ‘awarded’ to a too narrow set of circumstances, to too few people and gets doled out too long after the event. Fuel payments are also paid out too long after fact.
I’m not into the CWC can pay for staff costs, as this hides the problem and the CWCs are not a bottomless pit, despite what HQAC thinks. It would be interesting to see what happened if there was an upsurge on CWC returns of reimbursing staff for fuel and out of pocket expenses, so that staff felt able to be involved.
I’ve known people try to get an advance on VA and it’s not as straightforward as it should be. But this only apples to uniformed CFAV and misses out the largest staff group.
Moving to a bounty system for all staff who tick the mandatory boxes has to be the way forward.
@Squirrel VA is not claimable by all CFAV and all CFAV were involved during the pandemic as they are now.
Having moved out of uniform some time ago , but still contributing to the organisation, I do understand the importance of ensuring that publuc money is only spent on authorised activities. Left to our own devices or, at an extreme, self authorising would be likely to lead to an increase in the attempt fraudulent claims.
No longer having access to Bader etc I am in no position to make comment on its pros and cons but , in principle, a bounty and advance payments for expenses paid either in a lump sum or in staged payments over the year to enable casflow management within the RAFAC budget could be a sensible way forward.
The.electronic tracking of authorised activities gives you the required auditable trail for accounting purposes and any surplus of advanced payments against activity at the end of the FY could either be carried forward as an organisational credit for activity not yet completed (easy option) or reclaimed from the individual( not so easy).
We can debate the pros and cons of the move to such a system and never agree so why not authorise a controlled trial selecting a small number of volunteers in all of the categories , monitor, evaluate, identify all the wrinkles and , if the pros outweigh the cons, make the change.
They do seem to be drip feeding though, slowly like you say.
The bigger issue for T&S claims is I have no idea what has/hasn’t been paid as they don’t seem to be issuing any notes for them in DG. Seeing as I’ve recently had to resubmit some VA claims after HQ Acct’s admitted they’d lost them I don’t the highest level of confidence in them.
This comes back to what is VA actually intended for?
You can pay someone a bonus, or a wage as it then becomes employment. You must always avoid developing a mutuality of obligations.
VA for uniform staff is for off setting costs, buying the extra bits of uniform or attending the events. Uniform staff have volunteered for extra responsibility & commitments. They have, in general, less availability in time as they increase rank hence an increase of VA linked to rank.
This is what you are meant to use VA for. The fact that people don’t, doesn’t put an obligation on HQAC to run VA differently in the same way 3822 ROS books were never intended as ID.
I too have seen this & it’s common across all volunteer organisations & some paid posts, some of it is linked to economic some is covid & time constraints & others to just general societal exhaustion.
So what could be done? How do we make it easier for people to volunteer? How do we support those volunteers on tight budgets to continue to volunteer?
Mileage is often spoken about. Currently a full tank of 45l costs me £90 & lasts 400 miles. Each mile costs me 22.5p So as straight refund on mileage this is fine if a little miserly.
Business insurance is a big pain & is off putting. Considering the size of MoD & that many companies sign the armed forces covenant, the MOD could approach the Association of British insurers and agree free business insurance for CFAV when on cadet forces business. It means if you don’t use you car for day job work stuff you can get the insurance for cadets at no cost.
What about CIs? you could, for CIs only introduce a subsistence claim for certain duties to off set the food allowance - say up to £7.20 for 8hr plus. (as I know that amount is used as an allowance elsewhere) . It wouldn’t apply to days where service catering is provided & a host of other caveats but it would take the edge off some expenses.
At the end of the day we are part of a volunteer organisation. There may be reasonable expectation but if you are unable to do something then you are unable to do something & there should be no consequences. This doesn’t mean HQAC should start treating us as employees because other companies are offering payment incentives.
If volunteers cant, due age or another basic reason. Thats just life.
I for example would love not to have to go to work each day, but have to until i retire.
So sick of the constant moaning from people about VA and its ‘unfairness’.
Want VA go into uniform.
You cant have it both ways. Less repsonsibility, yet given the money.
Time to bin off CIs altogether frankly.
Want to be in a uniformed youth organisation. Tough. Wear the uniform and accept the rules.
This isn’t about levels of responsibility. CIs are very often in higher positions of responsibility than uniformed staff. So don’t use that as a reason.
This is about treating volunteers equally. And making sure basic costs are covered. If that means binning off VA so we can actually get 45p/mile and our catering/accommodation costs covered, then so be it.
In the nicest way. These individuals should be compelled to go into uniform. I have no issue with SMEs etc. But if the general cfav population is not willing to go along with the uniform ideals then it begs the question, whats the whole point.
This is a pure populist fantasy. AND is NOT how the MOD budgetry mechanism works.
If we bin off va we wont get that money allocated to mileage.
ALSO mileage is set centrally by the MOD. There will never be a seperate rate for various depts.
I do not understand ANY CI other than those who are age resteicted, who do not go into uniform.
There are only benefits for the individual and the organisation.
Frankly to not, is just bluntly absurd and shirking.
Sorry going to challenge. A number of CIs don’t go into uniform as they don’t want the hassle of uniform maintenance, are not interested in peacocking & just want to get on without too much military stuff. A lot don’t want to get involved due to
I did a lot as a CI as do the ones at my Sqn. They can tailor their volunteering commitments to their circumstances. Uniform staff have volunteered for a commitment & so are obliged to go forward.
What the CCF don’t really have are SNCOs. On the same arguments you stated above then SNCO should be made to commission. Don’t like not being in a position of responsibility? Tough volunteer for the extra work load or put up
The reason why I commissioned was I saw how CIs were treated and wanted to help stop the toxic bullying of CIs by SNCOs.we need CIs to make things work, we need officers to lead & run things. SNCOs may work for the airforce but there seem to be a bit out of place in RAFAC except those who still want to pretend they are still cadets.
Yes agreed it’s digressing.
Bringing back to point -VA is for private purchase of uniform & equipment that uniform staff are expected to wear at events etc. You don’t want to give blanket money across the org, just the volunteers who regularly turn up so you link it to specific duties & limit it a number of days so you don’t run out of money.
CIs don’t wear a uniform ergo they are not in need for a VA to maintain it.
Mileage is already reimbursed purely for fuel and not corporate wear & tear. You could argue that the MoD has been over generous as when fuel was £1.50 a litre it was costing people around 16p a mile so bout 10p profit a mile.
Business insurance is a current bug bear & that might have something that be sorted for people but individual needs vary across the organisation.
Bounty like the TA would be tricky but what I would suggest is that your first 14 days VA is claimed at a fixed rate & then your second 14 days VA is claimed at the Rank rate.
Encourages people to get involved more, cheaper for the organisation & allows snr ranks to get involved more without them being told it’s too expensive for them to attend.
Mileage allowance according to HMRC is not just to cover fuel but also a contribution towards VED, maintenance and insurance. That the MoD don’t reimburse to 45p a mile is an MoD decision, not HMRC.
That true but am the term of “allowance” is a little bit misleading.
Anything paid to someone can be regarded as an “income” for the receiver.
Where a vehicle is primarily being used for business use, the wear & tear, tax etc will primarily be business linked.
Now this could be worked out for everyone on an individual basis but that would be tedious & time consuming so to make it easier for themselves HMRC say that they will only tax mileage reimbursement as income if it is over 45p per mile & up to a certain amount of miles.
Below that they don’t want to get bogged down in the paperwork. Some companies don’t do a mileage allowance but straight reimbursement of fuel receipts.
In our case, the MoD (like many organisations with its own fleet of vehicles)- will only reimburse purely the fuel costs. This is because, in theory, they have a load of pool vehicles that can be used to negate the other vehicle costs.
Despite what we feel, the MOD reimbursement rate is fair for the amount we use.
Now one thing that my work is started doing is insisting on a fuel receipt for when submitting mileage claim. Just has to be from that month for the fuel claimed. This is allowing them to claim the tax back from HMRC (specifically the VAT I think) which is helping to mitigate costs of reimbursing mileage. Not sure if the MoD could follow suit with similar claims.
Mileage allowance is up to 10,000 miles pa at 45p a mile then IIRC down to 25p a mile thereafter. If you claim about that then you really are well stupid. Why bring HMRC down on you.
I’m afraid I have to disagree here. It’s not fair at all, and should be 45p/mile, for us volunteers at least. The wording used around the 25p/mile says something to the effect of ‘this isn’t meant to fully cover SP expenses, but to help towards the costs’. That’s obviously as this is aimed at SP. We’re not SP, so there no reason why they couldn’t introduce a separate rate for us.
We’re not employees and they’re not employers. There should be no expectation on RAFAC to reimburse us for something we’re volunteering to do over and above what we’re already entitled to.
Currently if I claim the mileage for a full tank of fuel I get more from the MoD than I actually paid - I think that reasonably fair particularly as my car is not used primarily for MoD purposes.
Out of curiosity how large is your fuel tank & how many miles do you get out of a full tank?
There absolutely should be that expectation. It’s an entirely common and reasonable expectation for a volunteer to be able to claim reasonable expenses for their volunteering. Unless you mean VA…
