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UK troops to reduce to just 82,000 by 2020(29-Jul-2011)

When the economy of any country is facing a down-turn, redundancies across all sectors and government departments including the army is but natural. The question is whether current cost cutting initiatives are cutting right into the bone with irrepairable long term consequences?

In his recent statements, General Sir Peter Wall, Chief of the General Staff (CGS) has admitted that over and above the 7,000 redundancies announced by the government, the Army will have to let go another 5,000 soldiers. This reduces the size of British Army to 90,000 by 2015 and to just over 82,000 by 2020.

There are the usual politically correct and brave statements that are being made, such as the British Army will be very efficient and these cuts will not impact the military reach or influence UK has globally. If we were to take a pause and benchmark with the size of other Armies across the world, the size of British Army is nowhere close to size of Armies of other comparable countries. While China leads the pack with an Army of more than 2,000,000 soldiers, other countries such as USA, Russia, North Korea and India all have more than 1,000,000 soldiers. It’s any body’s guess as to how an efficient Army of 82,000 will fare against those numbers and what will be the eventual influence of the UK on world geo-political and military landscape.

It is sad that many of those that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and where 556 British troops have been killed since September 9-11 attacks, few of them have any job prospects when they return home. In an alleged leaked memo, Gen Sir Peter has written that many battalions are being fully disbanded in order to meet the cost cuts. 

As additional cuts are now being scoped, it is inevitable that a further redundancy programme will have to be announced soon. Sadly soldiers are not eligible to buy accident, sickness and unemployment insurance and if they are made redundant, the only option they have is to depend on is the statutory payments from the government. Kesh Thukaram, Director of Best Insurance commenting on the latest leaked memo of Sir Peter said that the approach of the British government is bit of a gamble, though it can be argued that the Army has little choice but to take tough decisions, the long term impact has the danger to outweigh the short term benefits of meeting cost cutting targets. He also added that it will be helpful if the insurers can come up with a specific income protection and payment protection insurance plans for the soldiers as they all have employment contracts similar to any other profession. The fact that they are on the firing line ready to sacrifice their lives for the country, should be given some credence.

Best Insurance is a leading provider of income protection insurance and payment protection covers and is well known for its high quality advice that its trained staff provide to their customers. Apart from a wide range such as excesses period from back to day 1 to 180 days, some of the Best Insurance’s income protection and payment protection insurances offer upto 18 months of benefit.