No. I'm advocating claiming what you have to spend. If there is no need for a 4star hotel, due to a free welfare house being available (nb free - not a fiver a day for the quarter and council tax) then why should the taxpayer stump up this money? I'd rather it went on expenditure where there was absolutely no cheaper option.
In the case I referred to, I could have slept on the floor in my old or new mq, but made the choice to spend £9 on a travelodge. I could have made a sandwich, but chose to spend a bit more on a hot meal from the chippy. Why would I expect the taxpayer to pick up the cost of my lifestyle choice?
I've only been out just over a year so I was aware of the austerity before I left, I am also aware of how unfairly it is applied, always has been always will be.
I moved house 2 years ago, own house to own house, and I too slept on the floor, although it was on a mattress, but I sent my wife off for 3 nights in a hotel with the lad so that she didn't go through the stress of moving all paid for by us, she had money for meals as well and a bit of extra for petrol, now this was a lifestyle choice.
Moving on posting is not really a lifestyle choice and as you said you've not moved overseas so haven't been through it, I did it twice and would have done it thrice if asked and not forced out, I'm sure your recent posting down the A1 was quite traumatic for your clan.
As this is a move for the benefit of the Service, don't care if they volunteered or not because if no one volunteered it would have been a forced move for someone (a bit like Ay Nik is becoming), reasonable costs should be picked up by the employer and a few nights in a hotel, doesn't have to be 4*, for the family is more than reasonable. In this age of two income families and the importance of getting kids into the right school, NHS lists and other changes I can see getting quality volunteers for overseas being a problem in the very near future.
My current employer is just about to relocate a business unit and one of the staff members has said sod it due to the lack of support so this will cost the business at least 6 months (£10k min) wages due to agency fees, loss of effectiveness , the odd mistake losing business and distracting other employees during the learning curve, at least double that if the new employee decides it's not for them and walks. Hopefully we won't get an ET1 which will be at least another £5k even if we settle as I don't think it's been best handled.
It's easy to say lets save a couple of hundred quid by doing it the extreme low cost way but what you save in cash terms will easily be exceded in goodwill, less tangible but still relevant.
