The MOD has published the following update:
Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) provides a 90% contribution toward private school fees, a 92% contribution toward state-run school fees and up to a current maximum of £8,047 for senior school year placements. (Full rates of CEA can be found in JSP 752 Chapter 3.) This was put in place to ensure that Service personnel’s children experience minimal disruption to their education.
Service personnel will be eligible to claim the revised rates for the beginning of the new school year in September. These rates will reflect recent pricing adjustments made by the UK education sector. The CEA rates will be updated in the JSP 752 with effect from 1 August 2023 and Service personnel will be notified via a directed letter as part of the annual CEA update cycle.
Most major boarding schools have recently published rates for the next academic year and have factored in the current UK rate of inflation, which has remained above 10%. As a result, Service personnel and their families have expressed concern that they will be impacted by increased fees charged by schools.
The Armed Forces Remuneration (AF Rem) fully understands these concerns and wants to reassure Service personnel that the annual exercise to calculate CEA rates factors in nationwide changes in fees, therefore, increases in school tuition fees will be directly reflected in the new rates published in JSP 752.
AF Rem, Pay Colonel Staff and Defence Business Services (DBS) will continue to work hard to provide the best possible version of ‘the offer’ to help mobile service families provide a stable education for their children.
The MOD understands that cost-of-living pressures continue to be felt by Service personnel and their families. If Service personnel have any concerns regarding CEA, other allowances and expense or provision, they should address it appropriately through their chain of command in the first instance.
POSTED ON 24 MAY 2023
Comments
I took the ‘promise’ to directly reflect increases in fees in the allowance at face value and waited to see the uplift in august. Imagine my surprise to find the uplift being less than 8 %. My cynicism seems to remain fully justified. Fees rise every year but CEA only goes up by a fraction, if at all.
Note that this comes back of a 10% increase across the independent sector last year that was as met with only a 5% increase in CEA. The divergence of fees and rate are on top of shrinking pay and a cost of living crisis. This disproportionately affects the more junior ranks who will be priced out of CEA.