Soldiers' families furious over £100m perks for top brass

Britain's military top brass receive nearly £100m a year in special allowances and benefits, with almost £87m of that spent on paying for private school fees for their children.

Figures released to The Independent on Sunday under the Freedom of Information Act show that, in the last financial year, £86.8m was spent on private education for officers' children.

Relatives of British service personnel killed in combat as a result of equipment failures reacted angrily to the news that senior officers enjoy such benefits while troops on the ground struggle with inadequate kit.

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In the RAF alone, £1m was spent on chauffeurs, £3.4m on waiters and waitresses in officers' messes and a further £800,000 on bar staff. Chefs dedicated to serving senior officers cost another £2.8m a year. This adds another £8m to the bill, bringing the known total spent on special privileges to at least £95m.

The MoD argues that the children of all service personnel are eligible for the Continuity of Education Allowance, which reimburses up to 90 per cent of school fees. But ministers are so concerned about this system that the defence minister Kevan Jones has ordered a review.

The department is now considering staff support based on a percentage of their salaries. "It was clear that the higher ranks were benefiting significantly from this scheme," a senior MoD source said yesterday. "It is agreed that if we are going to offer this sort of support, it should be fairly spread across all ranks."

The revelations come at a time of chronic staff and equipment shortages across the military. Just last week the MoD was again criticised by a coroner for failing to supply basic equipment that he said could have saved a soldier's life. Corporal Mark Wright, 27, died after a mine exploded while he attempted to help an injured colleague trapped in a minefield in September 2006. A helicopter with a winch was not available to rescue the pair. A Chinook without a winch was sent, but it could not land, and the "downwash" triggered the explosion.

The £95m-plus figure spent on officers' perks last year would buy three Chinook helicopters or more than 100 Mastiff vehicles, 9,500 suits of body armour or a Typhoon fighter and pilot training. Reg Keys, whose son Thomas was one of six military police killed by a mob in Iraq, said the figure "left a bitter taste" in his mouth. His son died after being unable to summon help from nearby soldiers in 2003 because the men had no satellite phone.

"I find it abhorrent," he said. "My son died for the want of a distress flare, which costs a couple of quid. Yet they can find all this money for officers."

Steve Jary, national secretary of the civil service union Prospect, which represents MoD civilian staff, argued that the MoD was struggling to cope with equipping troops on the front line because of a shortage of skilled staff. "The MoD spends around £120m a year on defence clothing – that's everything from body armour to helmets to boots. Almost as much as that is spent on perks for officers. There is a shortage of engineers and an acute shortage of nuclear engineers."

Commander John Muxworthy of the UK National Defence Association, however, argued that the education allowance was an "invaluable tool in keeping highly trained officers and senior people", particularly in the Navy.

An MoD spokesman said: "There is a requirement for some senior officers to host both external and internal functions. It is therefore legitimate to provide the necessary basic support." He added that all service personnel were able to claim education allowances.