Military Pensions

[pigsinspace]

I don't know if this is a wind up or not,

I was told yesterday that military pensions have been frozen,

is this true or is it a wind up, if true can someone post a link?

As I don't live in the UK I don't know if its true or not.

Thanks

[WarmandDry]

My pension remains the same as in the last FY

[Old-Duffer]

........... you're lucky - mine has gone down by a small amount in nett terms. However, it is true that military pensions did not increase on 1 Apr 10. This is due to the 'triggers' used to calculate if and how much. I don't know how these 'triggers' work but I think it's something to do with inflation rate or RPI in September the previous year.

OD

[Specaircrew]

Sounds like 'chinese whispers' regarding the fact that they didn't go up this year as inflation was negative last Sept! Looks like you'll be a getting a rise next year though! Have just retired myself from the same L1011 outfit that you were on, how's the model aircraft business these days?

[Gnd]

Just low inflation, Mil pensions safe according to the horse (LF) on the TV today - they are not even being looked at for savings.

Dr Fox made made clear he was not considering scrapping the forces' final-salary pensions. today on BBC

[VinRouge]

I wouldnt be surprised if RPI falls back by this september; another reason the government want to get nasty quickly is to cut inflation via fiscal rather than monetary means.

[Pontius Navigator]

The State pension by statute rises by 2.5% or RPI. Other pensions by RPI alone.

There is a move to change RPI to the wages index. When wages were going up faster than the RPI this looked good. Our masters however must have anticipated that the wages would fall below the RPI rate thus giving Government a win-win and pensioners a lose-lose.

The Coalition, I understand, is to have pensions rise by 2.5% or whichever index is higher - good news. The question though is will that also apply to MilPens?

[The B Word]

I also want to clarify that the AFPS75 and AFPS 05 rates for those retiring after 1 Apr 10 went up by the 2.6% (?) that our pay went up by from last year. It is just the pension rates for those in retirement prior to 1 Apr 10 that was frozen.

Just in case anyone about to retire is worried!

The B Word

[Herod]

I have a pretty good airline pension (one of the few left), which goes up by RPI or 5%, whichever is the less. This year it went up by zero because RPI was negative. A friend of mine has a Civil Service pension, and wasn't expecting a rise. However, his goes up by RPI or 5%, whichever is the greater, so he got +5%. As a taxpayer, doesn't it make you feel good?

[Lima Juliet]

And the Civil Serpents had their new redundancy terms overturned in Court recently, whilst, the military redundancy terms have changed significantly.

I know, I know, dry your eyes Princess... :{

[diogg]

This will give you the full story on the lack of increase from Apr 10:

Armed Forces scheme pensions pensioners queries Xafinity Paymaster (http://www.xafinity.com/Microsites/Xafinity-Paymaster/Contact/Scheme-Members/Armed-Forces.aspx)

As AFPS 75 and 05 are both Final Salary schemes it follows that the pay increase from 1 Apr 10 will be reflected in pensions coming into payment after that date.

[L J R]

B word - I can tell you that pension for someone who left after Apr 10 was / is linked to the CURRENT wage.....pay rise and all...

[MightyGem]

The pension rise was zero this year, due to inflation being a minus figure last September. It's swings and roundabouts as the rise in 2009 was about 2.5% when the current inflation was nearly zero.

Some will have seen a slight decrease due to the change in the 10% tax rate.