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Where was it as I was Nottinghamshire at the time and renting was not that expensive. Council tenants were not expected to pay this and it went up again in 1977 but we'd just moved - with moving so often it almost trapped you into going into quarters as you are in the countryside with little renting opportunities.
Since we've lived here (arrived 2005) MOD have admitted they have left families in asbestos housing that were crumbling and on another camp a Fijian woman (I think that was her nationality), wife of a Fijian soldier asked why the married quarters were so squalid. Repairs were a joke and you weren't supposed to touch them yourself. You marched out and if they found anything wrong you got a bill. On one of our march outs they took the cooker apart inside and out to see if it was clean :-S
Anyone under the rank of corporal with a child got benefits at this time I'm discussing. I went on a trip with some of the wives and children from the camp to Newstead Abbey (home of Lord Byron) and I was sat with my friend on a bench by the lake watching our 2 boys playing. On the next bench was an officer's wife with a picnic for her 2 boys. Her boys got near the lake and we realised she was almost asleep. We got them back and found out that to buy a fridge as she was a nurse she was doing 3 night duties a week at a nearby hospital to get the money. She hadn't slept the night before. We took her boys with us so they could play away from her and let her sleep. That's how bad it got. She worked every weekend and one night during the week.
Don't think OH was on much more than you Maggie if it was more. It was just about the time we started getting child allowance for the first child as that made a bit of a difference as it paid for our son's clothes and shoes.
We got our own house and were a little better off, then Maggie started giving us real increases but in reality for those like my husband it didn't keep track with the equivalent job in civvy street so he left after being made to serve a year's notice.
We both enjoyed our jobs in the air force but the way things happened with the inflation of the 70s the services got way behind pay wise, pay rises didn't keep up with inflation. We were in a service where the only extras you could get was if you were aircrew or had an overseas posting. OH didn't get either he became too specialised.
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