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Commitment Bonus and refused extension of service.

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techie_tubby

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Goaters I require some advice as the Army HR people here are useless!

My plan is to wait my 8 years and take my £15k commitment bonus however I need to know if there is a return of service on taking it like the old bonus scheme or is it definitely a bonus for completing the 8 years? I ask as at the moment only about 50% of my trade are getting signed onto 12 years. If I am refused my 12 will I have to pay back a portion of my bonus or am I covered because the RAF has refused to sign me on?
 
You don't have to repay any commitment bonus if the RAF refuse to sign you on beyond the time you have signed up for or they make you redundant. The bonus is for your commitment to the RAF and not the other way round. I believe the bonus is paid with a commitment to the 9 year point only.
 
Soon To Leave said:
I believe the bonus is paid with a commitment to the 9 year point only.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure this is the case, it is a "commitment" bonus that when accepted at the 8 year point, ties you in to stay until your 9 year point - if you left in that year you would be liable to pay back some or all of the bonus. JSP 754 I think for the official gen.
 
The "new" commitment bonus does not have a RoS - it's for the time you have already done (as we found out with an ex navy lass who's RAF contract takes her to 12 years total service, but did not allow her to get her RoS after completing 8 years RAF)
 
Commitment bonus? Wow, you guys are sooooo lucky!. I left the mob 16 years ago (pushed,not jumped!) and have worked in the NHS since then...we have just had paid breaks removed, have a 3 year pay freeze and that will be followed by a 2 year "cap" of 1.8%. For my 15 years "commitment" i got...a small badge :-)

Fill your boots whilst you can folks....things get "interesting" on the outside :-)

By the way what sort of pay is a JT (or modern equivalent) on now days?
 
Also been on the same pay freeze. Worth noting that it's only the newbies that qualify for this commitment bonus. I certainly saw nothing like that amount at 4 1/2 and 7 1/2 year point. Especially after the taxman took his share. Some of the lads that qualify have also been held up on lower payband with a delay on courses at Cosford.

Everyone has taken a bite of the **** sandwich in the public sector. Pensions, pay, cuts etc but that's the mess we were left in by a government spending money we simply didn't have. IMO
 
But we do get the bonus of free shoes, sandy hols doesn't Syria look pretty this time of the year, trng to drive fire/fuel/rubbish/ (*delete where appropriate) trucks. Get front row seats at the Jubilee/Olympics/Football/Rugby (* delete where appropriate.)
 
cranwellpoacher said:
Commitment bonus? Wow, you guys are sooooo lucky!. I left the mob 16 years ago (pushed,not jumped!) and have worked in the NHS since then...we have just had paid breaks removed, have a 3 year pay freeze and that will be followed by a 2 year "cap" of 1.8%. For my 15 years "commitment" i got...a small badge :-)

Fill your boots whilst you can folks....things get "interesting" on the outside :-)

By the way what sort of pay is a JT (or modern equivalent) on now days?
Click to expand...

Cranwellpoacher

If, when you joined, you joined for an initial engagement of 9 years or more you received an higher rate of pay for your payband than those that hadn't.. I seem to recall it was called 'C' scale of pay. Women were scale 'A' and couldn't sign on for 9 years, men on shorter than 9 year engagements were Scale 'B' (this was down to the X factor as women had limited operational duties at the time plus they were kicked out if they were pregnant and had the option to leave if they got married).

Around 1990, they got rid of the 3 scales, took off the extra pay for scale C and introduced the 4.5 and 7.5 year bonuses (£2000 each time) with a return to Service of 18 months. This was a no-cost change and got around the problem of up-front rewarding of personnel that signed up for 9 years but left earlier.

In 2002, Pay 2000 came along, they dropped the length of service increments and brought in annual increments. Again a no-cost change, they took the current pay scale as the median and introduced a number of pay levels below and above it. Had promotion levels been good the RAF would have gained as on average in each rank you would have been paid less. As it is with slow promotion, there are a large number of personnel stuck at the highest pay increment that will have received well over the average for their rank.

A few years later they introduced a scheme whereby bonuses can be 'left in the bank' to accumulate to a higher amount at a later date. It's a good savings scheme but in essence they have received the same but in a more creative way.
You also have to remember that until a mechanic becomes a SAC(T) or J/T equivalent, they are on the lower pay band and of course on the lower increments; much less than the top level quoted.

In short - you didn't miss out. You were just on a different scheme. And if you were a DE you were a lot better off!
 
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