Ministry of Defence cuts £350,000 forces helpline funding 3

Finance | Tania Mason | 8 Nov 2011

A charity-run helpline that allows frontline soldiers to make freephone confidential calls direct from Afghanistan, has had all its funding axed by the Ministry of Defence.

SSAFA has had the contract to run the Forcesline, worth £350,000 a year, for the last 14 years. But according to the charity’s spokesman Michael Ivatt, the MoD informed SSAFA that the contract would not be continuing about a month before it was due to run out at the end of September.

Nine employees had to be made redundant and the Forcesline is now only staffed during weekdays instead of at weekends and evenings as well. Ivatt said that SSAFA felt the helpline was such a unique and vital service that it opted to continue funding it from charitable funds, albeit for reduced hours. This will be reviewed in six months.

Forcesline receives around 6,000 calls and emails a year from serving Army, Navy and Air Force officers, their families, and veterans. Soldiers can call freephone direct from Afghanistan and callers raise issues ranging from suicidal feelings to financial problems, concern about loved ones in the field and relationship issues.

Ivatt said the number of calls had increased recently, though a spokesman for the MoD said exactly the opposite.

"It was not being used as much and was a big draw on funding," the spokesman said.

Shadow minister for civil society Gareth Thomas (pictured) said: “This is a disgraceful decision, taken in the most abrupt and least transparent way imaginable. The lack of notice suggests a wanton disregard for those servicemen and women and their families for whom this support line was a vital and much-needed service.”

Thomas also pointed to the 10 per cent real-terms cut in funding to the Army Families Federation, saying that charities and community service organisations were “seeing their funding rolled back with little thought to the consequences”.

Directory: Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association Forces Help

Place a comment

David Alder
8 Nov 2011

I doubt if anyone has more sympathy for our Forces overseas than myself, but in the days of free Skype and email how on earth can anyone justify a service that - on these figures - costs £58.33 per call! It's not the real world. Everyone - and that includes charities - needs to look at the cost-effectiveness of their operations. I just hope that the MOD puts the £350,000 to more effective use in the interests of our Forces.

[Reply]

Peter Bell
Chair
COSRT
8 Nov 2011

Good grief; no wonder the Conservatives are sometimes known as the nasty party.

[Reply]

Karen Drury
fe3
8 Nov 2011

Just before Armistice Day - cracking timing.

[Reply]

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.