In July, branch officers at the invitation of VWS management were able to visit the new Veterans Welfare Centres in Centurion, Imjin, Kentigern and in Kidderminster, and take part in meetings with all the VWS staff in SPVA. Many issues were raised and dealt with during these sessions. However, some issues such as continuing connectivity problems for IT persists and are being pursued. One problem in particular that is of immediate interest to the visiting welfare managers is that of payment for travelling time. As some of you may know, since the economic crises, MoD like all of Whitehall have put tight restrictions on travel, overtime and travel time. There are though, exceptions to all rules as can be seen in the recently released 20100729 Control of Financial Commitments in CTLB:
"Travelling time
7. As for overtime (below), payment of travelling time will only be allowed if authorised explicitly in advance. HLB and SABU holders should delegate authority to do this as appropriate. In all cases, payment of travelling overtime should be kept to a minimum and scrutinised carefully by line managers, and Time Off In Lieu considered as an alternative wherever possible. However, payment for untaken annual leave will not be made where this results. "
On the basis of this instruction, the branch has written to Director of Veterans Services to request that authority should be extended to VWS management that allows discretion to pay travelling time to those welfare managers travelling on official business.
