Years have gone by since the article below was published, but written as it was against a very busy operational background in which BAFF members were engaged at the time, it gives a good picture of the original vision of representation for the armed forces, and it respectfully debunks some of the myths being floated against that concept at the time.

The Military Covenant is a term introduced into British public life to refer to the mutual obligations between the nation and its Armed Forces. The idea of a psychological contract between the nation and the serviceman is not new, but the term was coined with the publication by the Ministry of Defence of the booklet ‘Soldiering – The Military Covenant’ in April 2000, and has now entered political discourse as a way of measuring whether the government and society at large have kept to their obligations to support members of the armed forces.  The covenant has now been enshrined in the Armed Forces Act 2011 as the "Service Covenant", applicable to all three services.

The estates of servicemen and women who die as a result of active service are exempt from inheritance tax. With an increasing number of estates in recent years having been over the inheritance tax threshold, this exemption can be very important and advantageous to surviving families.

Feb 2008

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