MoD spends more on school fees than for injured servicemen.

Excellent and harrowing article  in the Sun. Oops. Look our Coalition, you are about to get Clare Shorted. 

MoD school fees 3 times war compo

Scandal ... £34m to soldiers injured in Afghan war, left, against £113m paid to send Forces kids to private schools

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By Diane Dernie

Mother of Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson

THIS shows what an absolute pittance is paid to our wounded soldiers. It's insufficient and doesn't fairly represent the sacrifice they make.

It's not that we are against the allowance scheme for school fees - we think it is right children have a chance of the best start at life.

But it seems a shame that, while the MoD are trying to help children, they are not equally committed to helping wounded soldiers who must start new lives. This comparison says it all about how cheaply their lives are treated.

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By ANDY McNAB, Sun Security Adviser

THE education allowance is a success story for all sorts of reasons. The Armed Forces remain one of the few places where ordinary people can really achieve social mobility through hard work.

This scheme is open to all ranks and it is money well spent on the children because they are getting a top-class education.

It is also money well spent on our servicemen and women who travel constantly for work.

If they take advantage of this, they stand to gain a great deal.

 

 

By JOHN KAY, Chief Reporter

Published: 07 Jul 2011

 

THE Ministry of Defence spends three times as much money helping top officers' children attend elite private schools as it does compensating soldiers injured in Afghanistan.

Officials forked out £113million on the kids' posh educations in 2009-10, annual accounts show.
At the same time they handed over just £34million to soldiers who had been hurt fighting in the war zone.
The average compensation cheque for being injured in Afghanistan is about £10,000, figures show. About 55 payments are processed a week as the battlefield toll rises.

But the MoD - which faces severe cost-cutting measures - found cash to subsidise the children of more than 5,000 officers to attend top schools.

Brave ... Ben Parkinson

Each place costs the taxpayer around £20,000 a year. It is believed some kids are being educated for free at top public establishments like Eton.

The MoD's Continuity of Education Allowance scheme allows service personnel to give youngsters stable educations, rather than send them to different schools as parents are posted worldwide.
Soldiers pay just ten per cent of private school fees.
Some £177million was paid out under the scheme in 2009-10. About £113million was claimed by officers and the rest by non-commissioned officers and other ranks. Meanwhile, a squaddie whose leg is blown off in battle can receive as little as £92,000. A colleague with "superficial" shrapnel wounds can expect about £5,000. Among those to receive low payouts was 27-year-old Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, who lost both legs in an Afghan bomb blast and remains the most seriously-wounded Brit to survive.
His compensation rose after his family complained. 

Thousands of top brass use the MoD school scheme.

Labour MP David Hanson said: "At a time when the MoD is having to save money it should look again at the cost of the education subsidy. The priority should be supporting our troops."
An improved compensation package launched last May lists tariffs for each individual injury - ranging from £1,200 to £570,000.
An MoD spokesman said: "CEA is an allowance open to all ranks. We have recently tightened the rules to ensure that it goes only to those who really need it. In 2010-11 the Ministry spent £59.5million on compensation for injured personnel."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/3681975/Ministry-of-Defence-spends-three-times-as-much-money-helping-top-officers-children-attend-elite-private-schools-as-it-does-compensating-soldiers-injured-in-Afghanistan.html#ixzz1RdQdKu31

When will this become a UK Problem?

Getting off the Metro at McPherson Square in DC, coming up the escalator to head to the office, I almost bumped into a man in a BDU jacket – with a small sign “Veteran, US Army, looking for work”.  He was sitting with a group of other men, wearing bits and pieces of uniforms.  I could see that he and the others lived there from the sleeping bags rolled out in a small alcove area, and the backpacks and plastic bags up against the wall.  Around them rushed men in 3 piece suits, women in skirts and sneakers carrying their work heels.  And then I realized, the entrance to Metro is under the Department of Veterans Affairs.

More than 130,000 homeless vets

The figures are stunning.  The VA’s 2009 CHALENG report tabulates and calculates that there are over 107,000 veterans who are homeless on any given night.  New reports put that figure at over 130,000, that one in three homeless are veterans.   Add to these the numbers of veterans and their families who may have a roof over their heads, but may not have any food in the pantry.  In this time of unemployment, veterans unemployment is greater in numbers and percentage than that of other men and women of the same age and education level.  For whatever reason, veterans in this country are joining the ranks of those without homes, without jobs, without food and without hope.

There are a multitude of groups trying to reverse this trend.  The large veterans groups such as the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, the VFW and the newer IAVA and AWV groups all have programs designed to help veterans find housing, jobs, training and health care. The well-known “Stand Downs” that draw thousands for health care, meals, baths and clean clothes are in many cities and townsand  have also spawned local and national support groups and even apps that are designed to help veterans apply for benefits or find a job or even to find a service or companion dog to help them overcome PTS or other problems.

Feed Our Vets

A group trying to help at the very ground level of support is Feed Our Vets. FOV is establishing pantries to help veterans obtain good nutritious food; to help them keep their families fed and preserve their dignity.  With cuts to nutrition programs and food stamps, these families will be at more risk of hunger or lack of appropriate nutrition needed to stay healthy, to learn and grow; after all, many of these families include children!  Many veterans are elderly, their pensions have suffered, Social Security isn’t enough, and some have a choice of whether to pay their bills for energy or housing, or to eat.  Our community, the military community, wants to help our veterans, which will relieve the burden on community food shelves and pantries, freeing these resources to help others in need.  .  Taking care of our own is an ingrained habit of ours, but help is needed from all.  These veterans and families deserve our respect and an outreached hand, a little help to get over a rough time until they can get back on their feet.   That’s the point.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/feeding-veterans.html#ixzz1RKHKiD9v