Half of armed forces 'want to quit'

By Hannah Morrison
Newsbeat reporter

Most of us hate our jobs so should we be worried that almost half the armed forces are saying they want to quit? A new ministry of defence survey has found morale is so low in the Army, Navy and the RAF that many are thinking about packing it in. We've been speaking to one soldier who has done just that.

Many soldiers are fed up with poor accommodation and repeated spells on tour

Jonathan Lucas is unloading his van. He's 27 years-old and works for the local water board in Northampton fixing mains.

Twelve months ago he was on peace keeping missions in Northern Ireland with the army, but in March he quit.

He said: "I'm getting paid now a lot more compared to what I was getting paid working in the armed forces for a lot less time.

"Where I'm doing a basic 48 hour week now, you could be doing a six month solid in Iraq or Afghanistan for roughly about £600 or £700 less a month."

'Not a cushy job'

He signed up when he was 20 years-old and was really keen but since the start of the Iraq war in 2003 he thinks serving in the armed forces has become a much tougher job.

He said: "They had a big intake of soldiers when the Iraq war started, people wanted to be involved, the people that did sign up then have now realised it's not as easy and cushy as they thought it would be.

"The amount of time spent away from family and friends, I didn't expect that."

I've spoken to three or four friends in the last six weeks who I've served with and they're talking of getting out Jonathan Lucas

Nine thousand people filled out these surveys for the Ministry of Defence and in many cases the complaints were the same as Jonathan's.

"Pay's appalling compared to a lot of people, accommodation is sub-standard," he said.

"People were going away for 6-7 months at a time, you'd come back and you would start training again for a new tour…then maybe a bit of family time, then back on tour again."

Too late?

The government insists it's pumping money into these problem areas and £8.4bn is set to be spent on accommodation over the next ten years.

But Jonathan thinks it's too late for a lot of his friends.

"In the last job I was in in the army we were a twelve man team and four of us have left now," he said.

"I've spoken to three or four friends in the last six weeks who I've served with and they're talking of getting out.

"I got out at nearly my eight year point, I only had four more years to push for a half pension but I couldn't cope with another four years."