The CWC paying expenses as suggested is absolutely nonsensical and something no one in the volunteer cadre should never countenance.
What abut CWCs having a lean year?
What about all the things CWCs pay for and the things we want to buy?
CWCs are a finite pot of money and over the last 20 years have had more and more demands put on them to pay for which HQAC have IMO shirked. We can’t give the MOD another opportunity to pass the buck.
@Chief_Tech the idea of moving the management of air cadets away from the RAF sounds good, but it could mean cadets paying for uniforms and lot more besides. Loss of sqns meh. But given how the RAF has absorbed us for soley selfish reasons into the “RAF Family”, I can’t see them being fans. Where would they dump overpaid FTRS?
Once again, in reality, they’re not paying the expense, but fronting it and getting the reclaim - HQAC are still paying it.
Their funds are there with the explicit intention of paying expenses that the unit incurs so that CFAV aren’t footing the bill for cadet activities and operations.
Another purpose is to support cadets and CFAV who are experiencing financial constraints to ensure that opportunities are not missed - be that a camp fee, qualification cost, kit purchase, or something else - why not a RECLAIMABLE fuel cost?
Would you rather be £50-£100 down on the cost of a tank of fuel for a vehicle? If you couldn’t afford to bear that cost how would your cadets get to an activity?
If you not paying that fuel cost (or not being able to wait for the reimbursement) means cadets would miss out on an opportunity, see point 3.
If you had an SOV, who would pay for the fuel? If a Clarity vehicle wasn’t available, would you pay the hire and fuel cost yourself or expect the committee to?
We’re overall darn fortunate to even be able to utilise Clarity and claim fuel anyway.
Ultimately, if you can and want to bear that cost for the time it takes the reclaim to come through, then crack on, but for those who can’t afford that then their committee should be a viable option.
Conversely, I wouldn’t expect a committee to be approached by the Sqn FCI to fund their personal LCE from Dragon Supplies - that would be a personal expense that an individual should use their own money including their VA (if in receipt of) to purchase.
Nor would I expect them to front H2D claims which falls under personal expense.
But this is an operational cost and one which, again, they will get back.
Rather than the CWC, why not have “HQAC” front the dosh, they have the budgets for this. Why should sqn funds be used to cover their incompetent and outmoded thinking and systems? Even if the CWC get it back when some MoD admin lackey catches up with their job.
But this still doesn’t get around the most inconvenienced and impacted group of CFAV … CIs. But we are very long way from CIs getting properly remunerated.
I’ve done more than my fair share of taxiing cadets over 37 years so they could do things when I was in a better financial position, but no more. Few of these attracted mma. In jobs do mileage for the job and you claim, no extra criteria to fill or ways of not allowing a claim.
At the risk of stirring the pot again and for clarification of my first post.
I was only making the suggestion for HQRAFAC to cicinsider making an advance payment of VA, travel and , if any, other expenses incurred by individuals in carrying out duties in support of those activities which have been traditionally paid for from the public purse.
The use of CWC funds to support those activities that are not paid for from public funds , being local, I would hope would be administered quickly and are not an issue.
The use of a local non -public fund , if it is still raised by and held by a charitable body should not, in my view, be used to cover up any problems with the administratiion of the public funds. That way, however well intentioned, is fraught with danger.
Night Owl out.
I guess what’s really needed here is rather than advanced payment, is just a much quicker turn around on the payments we get currently.
With the introduction of VP, this should be coming soon, especially with RC(N)'s mission to get rid of as many paper forms as possible.
With all claims going digital, there should be no reason why you can’t have money claimed back within days of an event, rather than months. This should certainly be better than what we have currently.
I think your idea of HQAC giving money upfront just sadly isn’t workable on a large scale. Currently you can ask for an advance on VA, but on a case by case basis.
Why wouldn’t HQAC fronting payments be workable?
I cannot see any excuse they could dream up being valid. It is an admin process and all they do is admin.
how much do you ask for in advance? Do you have to work out actual figures or rough figures?
advances have to be repaid within one month; CS rules.
if your advance is less than actual cost, additional money paid to CFAV. Problem is if advance is more that actual, HQAC will have to chase CFAV for difference; more admin!
The pandemic and the economic situation we find ourselves in has forced the govt to make often sensible changes to the way we do things.
Successful oganisations change the way they operate to meet new situations and so step 1 is Change the Rules.
As to change to what ? I refer to the very first post on this thread.
To be honest, this would still be a lot quicker than the current system! Especially as HTD only gets claimed every six months, plus 3 months to wait for the money to come through!
On the topic of costs etc, does anyone know if uniformed CFAVs are entitled to the uniform tax rebate?
Looking on Money saving expert it says a group that can’t do this is the Armed Services because they have a tax personal allowance raised to compensate but guessing we don’t?
Is our uniform upkeep allowance supposed to cover this?
A wing near me had fuel cards - you use any wing SOV or clarity self-drive you fill up using the fuel card paid from wing funds. Provide the receipt back to wing - they claim on Accts 4. So the volunteer is never out of pocket. Contrast with my wing where after a week away I was £110 out of pocket for a few weeks as I had to fill up a minibus myself then wait for wing to pay me the money back.
Sorry. Forgot to quote. My accountant told me that the UUA meant we couldn’t claim. Though he said buying any PPE may be arguable even if also uniform.
Few points as I’ve mentioned personally, as much as I miss wearing the uniform as a cadet…I much prefer wearing what I choose for a parade evening. I barely have room as it is, I can’t be doing with a fair bit of uniform and greens etc taking up space. Don’t forget the hours I save not having to iron uniform and polish my shoes.
I do understand it is a uniformed organisation but with uniform, that could/would come with extra responsibility and expectations which I don’t need. The vast majority of what I do with my sqn does not need me to wear a uniform.
I’ve seen the pressures of uniformed staff being encouraged to do more and take on more. That results in staff taking their breaks, and quite often not returning back in uniform. Of course, you can always say no to things, but people often remember when the word no is chucked around which could mean they get overlooked on certain things.