R.A.F.A, RAFB, SSAFA & Legion Any thoughts?

[gemarriott]

Below is a portion of a PM I sent to a friend earlier today as a response to your means test piece.

It is the convalscant issues that really rubbed me the wrong way. The RAFB have homes ideally suited to giving chronically ill and post opertaive patients a decent recovery break and they are being largely used as guest houses for the unworthy. If you know how to fill in a means test, are prepared to tell lie or two,scrounge and live off benefits no matter what your income come along free. If you are honest, frugal, able to to manage your finances or hardworking tough luck you pay and if you haven't any spare cash you don't get convalscance. I would like to see who gets convalscant care decided purely on medical grounds and service eligibility. That way every ex RAF person would get the care and treatment they needed through illnesses and operations irrespective of the financial concerns. Of course if you are sufficiently well off a voluntary scheme of donations should be promoted. Above all the scroungers would have to look elsewhere for their holidays.

I have delivered several clients to Byng house (it was doing that which finally soured my regard for the RAF charities) on several occasions and on each visit I was shocked by the conversations around the lunch table. Usually about how many times they visited, or where their next holiday abroad was going to be and how nice it was to have a couple of weeks "all in at the seaside for nowt" each year. Whilst knowing of at least 3 fellow ex RAF men and women recovering variously from cancer, heart ailments and falls bought on by old age were either too proud to be means tested or told they could have a break but would have to pay and couldn't afford it.

What I fear the charities have lost sight of is that some old people are equally adept at scrounging off the system as young people. So the honest pensioner who does his bit and fills the means test in accurately and honestly gets nowt and the scroungers get all because they know how to work the system. unfortunately there is little honour in the benevolent game.

Even after saying all that, I still pay the contributions because the genuine need is there and sometimes the genuine need is met.

 

[RAFBF]

Byng House

Byng House

Can't comment on Byng House as it is an RBL facility and so not one that I have either visited or taken people to - have you ever visited an RAFA/RAFBF respite home and, if not, would you like to because I could try to get an invite and then meet you there to try to set your mind at rest about the way in which the RAF charities work. I have not met any person on my visits that I would regard as either a scrounger or as unworthy - in fact I have come away uplifted by the impact of my visits. If the RBL home Byng House is your nearest then the nearest RAFA/RAFBF facility would be Richard Peck House in Lytham St Annes.

Could also discuss how you would operate the admissions policy for the respite homes - in a perfect world it would be wonderful if every ex RAF and their partners could be offered convalescent care whenever they need it and at no cost but the charities could neither afford to do it nor would they have the rooms available. If you want to contact off forum my e-mail (which I opened when I took my user name) is rafbf@yahoo.co.uk

 

[gemarriott]

Can't comment on Byng House as it is an RBL facility and so not one that I have either visited or taken people to - have you ever visited an RAFA/RAFBF respite home and, if not, would you like to because I could try to get an invite and then meet you there to try to set your mind at rest about the way in which the RAF charities work. I have not met any person on my visits that I would regard as either a scrounger or as unworthy - in fact I have come away uplifted by the impact of my visits. If the RBL home Byng House is your nearest then the nearest RAFA/RAFBF facility would be Richard Peck House in Lytham St Annes.

Could also discuss how you would operate the admissions policy for the respite homes - in a perfect world it would be wonderful if every ex RAF and their partners could be offered convalescent care whenever they need it and at no cost but the charities could neither afford to do it nor would they have the rooms available. If you want to contact off forum my e-mail (which I opened when I took my user name) is rafbf@yahoo.co.uk

Sorry my mistake! it was Richard Peck house to which I was referring and not Byng house. Byng House was usually more sympathetic to borderline cases and more creative in finding funding. Having dealt with both I simply confused the two. On my last visit there I met a remarkable lady who had survived the concentration camps and was a heroine in her own rights. I also met a chap and his wife who assured me that they always enjoyed their spring and autumn holidays at Peck house especially as they were free, they told me this was their 4th year of attending. That was the week that I had to tell a WW2 vet who had served all 6 years of the war servicing bombers after his prostate cancer op that he could go to Peck house for 2 weeks with his wife but he would have to find £500 plus towards the cost. he quite rightly asked me to tell them to get stuffed. I didn't and he and his wife did eventually go and they did contribute their £500 from their savings.

The only admissions policy which I would find acceptable is medical certification from a Doctor that "convalescance" is warranted and entitlement eligibility checks on RAF service for claimants. It is my deeply felt opinion that places such as Richard Peck and Byng house are badly misused every time somebody goes there for a "holiday"

I have witnessed this abuse first hand and for me it was the final straw which stopped my direct contribution as a caseworker. I would however still reccomend any ex servicemen or dependant in need of assistance to contact either the RBL or SSAFA who in turn will, as you know, contact the various service specific organisations. Personally I would rather live in a box and drink meths than seek help for myself and face that god awful inquisitorial means test.

the other major gripe I have about the major forces charities is duplication of effort. It would be far more cost effective for the RBL, SSAFA, RAFA, RAFBF, NAVY, ............. to work through one set of administrators and to one set of rules, as it is each organisation wastes millions reinventing the wheel.

I am afraid working in the system has cost me my enthusiasm for it, but that does not mean they are not doing good works, it simply means I do not approve of the way those good works are carried out and the waste of funds through gross inefficiency and out dated methods. I know I come across as harsh and probably unfeeling but that is how I see the situation and try as I might I cannot bring myself to call a scrounger a deserving case when plainly they are not.

 

[RAFBF]

RAFA and RAFBF

RAFA and RAFBF

note your comments on Richard Peck House - know you can't give names but how long ago were these concerns happening that stopped you being a helper. I have the opportunity of talking to those responsible and will raise the subject of means tests (again) but still can't see a logical way to divide up limited resources - where we must be is ensuring that all are treated equally and with dignity. Both RAFA and RAFBF make a lot from the fact that they are here for the RAF Family and, in a strong family, those that can will help those that can't and do so willingly.

 

[gemarriott]

note your comments on Richard Peck House - know you can't give names but how long ago were these concerns happening that stopped you being a helper. I have the opportunity of talking to those responsible and will raise the subject of means tests (again) but still can't see a logical way to divide up limited resources - where we must be is ensuring that all are treated equally and with dignity. Both RAFA and RAFBF make a lot from the fact that they are here for the RAF Family and, in a strong family, those that can will help those that can't and do so willingly.

It was within the last 2 years.

As for convalscent care Peck house and the other RAF charity homes use a fairly small part of the overall budgetand it should not be too onerous to offer free places to all those eligible by dint of service providing they have "genuine" medical need of convalescence, ie respite care, post operative recovery etc. Do bear in mind that if this was the case many more desperately ill and "too proud to be means tested" ex members of the RAF would take up a place and benefit, the option for offering places to "charity home tourists" simply to keep the home full and operating would be diminished if not removed totally.

As it is under the current scheme many people who would benefit from a couple of weeks of good food and sea air will not apply as "I don't want charity" "I won't be means tested" "I cannot afford the contribution" Several would willingly give quite sizeable donations to the charity as a result of 2 weeks care given freely and without financial inquisition at the time it was most needed. Undoubtably many would offer to contribute towards their own care with a glad heart if they were able and many would once they were fit again.

All those of us doing casework must have run into one or all of the above. There are pensioners out there too proud to collect pension credit simply because they have to fill in a far less invasive means test than the forces charities use.

A better way of providing "genuine" convalscant care has to be found. remember these men and women are at their most vulnerable when they need this care, funding should be the very last consideration they are faced with not the first. It should be up to the fund raisers to worry about that bit not the ailing ex serviceman or his/her family. All they should need to worry about is getting well again.

I would like to stress that I think convalescance is the only area of the work the various charities operate in that should be offered free for all service qualified beneficiaries. I actually believe tighter financial control should be practiced in many other areas.

 

[Joe_90]

Joining

Joining

Having read all this I have decided to look into my local RAFA branch, I think I have been a member since I joined up as I infrequently receive Airwaves through the post although this may because of the RAFBF. I remember I used to get membership cards at the end of every year for the previous year when I was an SAC but that hasn't happened for about 8 or 9 years now, I'm not sure they were RAFA but I think they were.