Army pilots may quit over pay clawback
SOME of the Army’s most experienced pilots who flew alongside Prince Harry could quit over Ministry of Defence plans to make them repay thousands of pounds of flying pay, senior officers have warned.
At least 15 pilots have already resigned after the MoD warned around 200 serving and retired crew they would have to pay back a total of £829,000 extra pay they received in an administrative error. The Army has clashed with the MoD after officials rejected generals’ pleas to write off the debt.
They warned clawing back the money overpaid a decade ago was unfair and could lead to more resignations in the already overstretched Army Air Corps. The corps is already desperately short of senior aircrew, pilots and instructors, commanders have revealed.
The row emerged as Prince Harry, a former officer in the corps, said he had been “broken” by the Army’s decision to pull him out of Afghanistan in 2008 after a foreign magazine broke the news blackout about his presence in the war zone.
The Prince said he had “done everything I could to get out there”, only to be “plucked out of my team”. He said: “I
was broken. I didn’t know what was going to happen to them.”
One source said some pilots had “lost all trust in the system” after being handed the repayment demands. The source said it was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” for several pilots who were already considering leaving.
One pilot has been told he must pay back more than £30,000 even though an internal audit found the aircrew had received the extra retention bonuses in good faith.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show the Army told MoD officials it was “firmly of the view” that overpayments should be written off because of “compelling operational capability” and “fairness” considerations. Those landed in debt were described as “senior, experienced aircrew” which the military is already struggling to retain in the face of highly-paid civilian job offers. Many of them are highly-qualified instructors.
Commanders argued that the cost of replacing such experienced pilots “far exceeds the total debt”, pointing out that it costs at least £3.6 million to train an Apache helicopter pilot and more than £11m to produce an Apache instructor.
Maj Gen Richard Nugee wrote that the issue was having a “demonstrable effect on morale” and there had been a “clear increase” in resignations.
Appeals are now only being heard on a case-by-case basis and serving pilots in January began having their pay docked by four days money per month, according to the documents. Officials are also pursuing those who have already retired from the Army.
An Army spokesman said: “We have apologised and explained the circumstances of the overpayments to all of those affected. Arrangements have been made to revert their pay to the correct levels.”