UK MoD threatens army families with pay dock over poor housing claims

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
13 Nov 2022 23:05

Normally, army families are allowed to file complaints since they are entitled to benefits issued by the service family accommodation (SFA) system.

UK MoD threatened army families with pay dock over poor housing claims.

Families of the British Armed Forces servicemen and servicewomen are being threatened by the Ministry of Defense from getting their pay docked if they do not drop charges over conditions of poor housing, The Guardian reported on Sunday.

Documents obtained by The Guardian reveal that the Ministry of Defense had bullied army families and told them that their pay will be docked to compensate for legal costs if the charges are not dropped.

For a country that is starting to bear the brunt of an economic crisis, this is the last thing British families would want, further exacerbating their living conditions.

The claims issued by these families concern the government's failure to provide families with safe and well-maintained homes.

Normally, army families are allowed to file complaints since they are entitled to benefits issued by the service family accommodation (SFA) system.

But government lawyers have instead resorted to threatening the families of army men and women that in the event of a judgment in their favor, their pays will be docked.

In a correspondence seen by The Guardian, a senior government lawyer wrote: "The purpose of this letter is to make an open offer to you that if you will agree to the order granting judgment in default being set aside and that you will discontinue the claim by a process of consent order (a copy of a draft of which is enclosed), the MoD will not seek its legal costs of this process."

"If, however, you do not agree to this by the end of Wednesday, 14 September 2022, we shall issue the application and seek the full legal costs of the MoD."

In a letter to a second claimant, the same government lawyer wrote: "If you will not agree, and you will put us to the trouble and expense of a contested application, we shall seek the MoD’s legal costs (which, I have little doubt can be recovered by deduction from your pay). Please respond no later than 4 pm on Monday, 3 October 2022."

The lawyer who hasn't been identified by the newspapers declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense said, “These cases relate to rented property outside the UK. We will not comment further on it due to ongoing legal proceedings.”

Shadow Defense Secretary, John Healey, said, “This is utterly unacceptable. Ministers must call off the MoD’s legal dogs and drop these threats to forces families."

“When service families have to resort to court to get basic repairs done, it confirms deep failings with service accommodation. Yet ministers have no proper plan to fix the problems.”

Mark Francois, a former Tory armed forces minister, said, “Ministers must clearly intervene urgently, to sort this dreadful mess out.”

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chair of the Commons defense select committee, said, “All service personnel and their families deserve a proper standard of accommodation."

“When not on operations this is where those in uniform spend their time and it is where the family call home. Increasingly it is the constraints and pressures on family life that tip the balance in obliging serving personnel to exit the military.”