Charging for MOD housing by age ‘behind the times’

A law firm is seeking compensation of up to £10,000 for Armed Forces personnel who it claims may have been overcharged for accommodation because of their age or marital status.

Leigh Day, which believes around 75,000 people could be owed compensation, has already received hundreds of expressions of interest.

The Ministry of Defence’s housing policy requires British Army personnel under the age of 37, or over 37 and unmarried, to pay for Single Living Accommodation, while those over 37 and married are eligible for an accommodation allowance.

In the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, only those who are married or in a civil partnership qualify for that accommodation allowance.

Ryan Bradshaw, a solicitor at Leigh Day, told Forces News: “I am struggling to see how the age-related criteria is justifiable.”

He explained that a policy change is likely to address this, but there are no plans to compensate those people who have allegedly been overpaying for their housing.

And Mr Bradshaw said the marital status criteria would indirectly disadvantage those who are statistically less likely to be married,  such as non-religious, younger or LGBTQ individuals.

He said the MOD was “behind the times”, particularly with issues of discrimination.

“Working on the basis of an assumption that service personnel are going to be straight white males, mostly at the younger end, and I don’t think that’s the case anymore,” he explained.

“Obviously they’re looking to recruit from a diverse group of people now, making the military more diverse. And rightly so, it’s got to be better for that diversity.

“But you’ve got to update your policies in line with that change in demographic.

“Historically, the MOD was able to say that they were entitled to discriminate against certain groups of people on the basis of combat effectiveness.

“As an example, you wouldn’t necessarily want to send your average grandad to the frontline fighting the Taliban, and that’s something that we can all agree… is pretty reasonable.

“But then to try and extend that principle to the issue of allowances and accommodation, we think, is stretching it too far.”

According to the Leigh Day, the amount of compensation due will depend on the amount of time individuals have spent in Single Living Accommodation and how much they have paid for it.

A Ministry of Defence Spokesperson said: “It would be inappropriate for us to comment further on potential legal action at this time.”