In 1999 the RAFBF was awarded a Royal Charter. The Fund offers assistance to all past and present Royal Air Force members who entered productive service and their dependants who are in financial distress, regardless of rank, job or length of service. Eligibility lasts for life.
The Fund has come a long way from its beginnings in 1919, when, for its first year, welfare expenditure was £919. Assistance then might have been a modest shilling for a night's lodging to seek work, the provisions of tools of a trade or the repair of boots. These by today's standards may seem modest in the extreme, but they served the needs of the time.
Since then there have been dramatic changes. Aircraft technology has developed at a tremendous rate, while conditions of service, pensions and social security have all improved dramatically. Sadly there are still things that have not changed. The need by some of the men and women who served, and still serve, to be helped over difficult times continues. Clearly, no government can institute and maintain a system that copes adequately with all eventualities.
The Fund has diversified and grown considerably over the years and now, in addition to general welfare assistance, embraces Housing, Education and Care Services including its own and jointly owned short-term Care Homes.
