Reserve pay and Rejoiners bonus

[Fez]

Morning all.

I left the Army 2 years ago after 12 years service. I decided to rejoin the reserves in November 2019 and started my application then.

I passed everything and in March this year I was told all I needed to do was attest however due to lockdown I couldn’t attend any unit to do it.

I eventually went along in August and attested and was taken on strength. Since then I have been told that unless I can provide pay slips from my previous service I will be placed on the bottom scale for my rank, despite having 3 years in the rank. And more annoyingly I have been told the commitment bonus is now cancelled led for anyone who was taken on strength from April 2020

basically if I was to reach the minimum commitment over 3 years I will be thousands of £ out of pocket and my unit are no help whatsoever.

does anyone have any knowledge on any of my problems, I’m so close to calling my unit and calling them all stabs!
Cheers

 

[stacker1]

Morning all.

I left the Army 2 years ago after 12 years service. I decided to rejoin the reserves in November 2019 and started my application then.

I passed everything and in March this year I was told all I needed to do was attest however due to lockdown I couldn’t attend any unit to do it.

I eventually went along in August and attested and was taken on strength. Since then I have been told that unless I can provide pay slips from my previous service I will be placed on the bottom scale for my rank, despite having 3 years in the rank. And more annoyingly I have been told the commitment bonus is now cancelled led for anyone who was taken on strength from April 2020

basically if I was to reach the minimum commitment over 3 years I will be thousands of £ out of pocket and my unit are no help whatsoever.

does anyone have any knowledge on any of my problems, I’m so close to calling my unit and calling them all stabs!
Cheers

If Army nets is still up and running it might still have your old pay slip.

You wont really be out of pocket for anything, you arent having money taken away from you. You are joining after the bonus has ended. If you dont like the offer, dont join.

 

[MoleBath]

Try contacting pay office in old unit and ask if they can help (pay clerks like beer )

 

[Jemster]

According to the relevant JSP, you can be brought back on a lower increment where there has been a break in service greater than 30 days. APC CM in Glasgow in meant to decide what the re-entrant pay level should be. The relevant paras are reproduced below.

If you are not getting satisfaction from your local Unit HR I suggest raising an I-Support query via JPA seeking a reassessment of your starting pay.

“Pay on Re-entry / Re-Enlistment after a Break of Service

02.1104. sS career management authorities (Army: APC CM) will confirm what previous service (including Reserve Force service for transfer to the Regular and Regular service for transfer to the Reserve Force service) can be permitted when re-entering either the Regular or Reserve Forces. This will be done on an individual basis and depends on factors such as time served and qualifications gained outside the Service, skill fade etc. Depending on these factors, pay may be reassessed as follows:

a. If the individual is to re-enter at the same rank and branch or trade they will enter at the same increment as that when the individual left the Service, in the same range for their branch or trade.

b. In some instances, it may be determined that the individual should re-enter in their former rank at a lower increment (for example to reflect skill fade). Subject to Service workforce requirements, an individual may, in exceptional circumstances, be employed in a different branch or trade attracting a higher level of pay if they have attained a qualification outside the Service. Such instances will be boarded by the Service career management authorities on re-entry.

c. If it is decided that re-entry should be at a lower rank (e.g. where a reserve officer is re-commissioning as a DE Officer and is required to undergo Regular IOT) then former service in both lower and higher rank should be used to determine the appropriate increment. However, personnel will not be able to earn a higher rate than they could if they re-joined in the previously held higher rank.

d. If it is decided that re-entry should be at a higher rank (e.g. a relevant single-Service board has decided to confer the re-entrant with a higher rank taking account of relevant external experience gained) then pay in that higher rank will be determined in accordance with regulations covering pay on promotion (see Section 6) which will result in higher rank re-entrants being paid at the lowest increment level in their new higher rank.

02.1105. When any former service declared on re-employment has been confirmed and authorised, pay may be reassessed to count the former paid reckonable service towards incremental pay from the date of re-entry / re- enlistment. In such instances the IBD is the date of re-entry / re-enlistment, adjusted as necessary to reflect previous paid reckonable service.”

 

[Rooper]

Since then I have been told that unless I can provide pay slips from my previous service I will be placed on the bottom scale for my rank, despite having 3 years in the rank. And more annoyingly I have been told the commitment bonus is now cancelled led for anyone who was taken on strength from April 2020.

Who ever told you that about having to provide payslips clearly has no idea whatsoever what they are talking about.

Your PSAO or HR AO should know what to do but if they don't tell them that they need to raise a JPA L002 and send it to DBS process who will do the rest. The L002 essentially sorts out the correct rate of pay (and corrects your IBD) taking into account your break in service.

With regards to the Commitment bonus, they are correct in saying that they stopped in April 2020 for new applications however a process was instigated at the beginning of the lockdown period whereby anyone who was due to be attested but couldn't be due to the closedown COULD be still eligible assuming they were registered with the relevant authority at Army HQ.