Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff in his Department were in receipt of Continuity of Education Allowance in (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14 and (c) 2014-15; and what the cost to his Department was of providing that allowance for staff based (i) in the UK and (ii) overseas in each such year.
Mr Julian Brazier
The requested information is provided in the following table and I have added the figures for 2009-10 for comparison.
Continuity of Education Allowance, Number of Claimants and Cost (UK and Overseas) by Financial Year (FY)
|
FY 2009-10 |
FY 2012-13 |
FY 2013-14 |
FY 2014-15 |
|
|
UK Claimants |
5,020 |
4,160 |
3,600 |
3,230 |
|
Overseas Claimants |
1,000 |
790 |
700 |
650 |
|
Total Claimants |
6,020 |
4,950 |
4,300 |
3,880 |
|
UK Cost (£ million) |
93.2 |
82.2 |
74.3 |
69.4 |
|
Overseas Cost (£ million) |
18.1 |
16.4 |
15.0 |
15.1 |
|
Total Cost (£ million) |
111.3 |
98.7 |
89.3 |
84.5 |
Note: all numbers are rounded
Continuity of Education Allowance was reviewed as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 since when improvements in governance have achieved a reduction of costs by around £30 million per annum along with an associated reduction in claimants. Work continues to further reduce the cost of the allowance.
