I’ve just had a letter too. Ran it through the calculator and it looks like I’m being stung for in excess of 10k tax bill. I suspect many heard the expletives in the next county.
I owe this for doing nothing other than going to work and doing my job. I have no control over pay, hours worked or pension inputs. As an accidental OF4, I’m hardly up in the fat cat stakes the government intended to stop manipulating the pensions system. Cross doesn’t start to describe it.
I was aware of the issue, especially that OF4 is a vulnerable rank, but got onto FPS pretty pronto as this isn’t something you can plan your way out of. But when the literature implies a broadly linear increase to your pension - every pamphlet / briefing I’ve seen has said it goes up in line with salary and time served - I was stunned to see that the PIA is anything but linear. One year the govt put 5k into my pension and then last year in excess of 100k which has caused the problems. Other issues surround how to pay. If you pay up front and the govt changes the rules in 18 months you’ve just spanked a lot of money. But if you go down the scheme pays route and they treat it as a loan - I believe that is how it works for the NHS Scheme Pays rules - you end up paying interest on the loan, a loan which you’ve never actually had the benefit from.
Its a mess, and it will get worse if we all go back to 75 Scheme in a few years and we get another lump sum thrown at pensions as reparation. But hey, numbers are boyuant, morale’s good and the PVR rate tiny. What’s to worry about?!