VinRouge
I think I have an explanation for both. Firstly, the ‘pension pot’ to which you refer. It isn’t really a ‘pot’ as you have correctly pointed out, it’s more of an IOU from HM Treasury. The scheme is written into UK Law and as we have agreed the pension that you have earned cannot be changed (and as we have learned in the McCloud case it cannot be unreasonably enforced for change without the consent of the scheme member - so AFPS15 should have been an offer to transfer for existing members like it was for AFPS05). There are millions of Govt IOUs in circulation right now, not for pensions but for payments - the Pound Sterling bank note. Have a look at one, in itself worth nothing, but the magical words of “I PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER THE SUM OF”. This promise is backed by the Bank of England (or regional variations) and is in effect the same as our pensions - the UK promises to pay us the amount we have earned under the scheme underwritten in UK Law. I can remember talking to a Financial Advisor in the Mess in the very early 90s when I was a Pilot Officer, asking him what the Armed Forces Pension was - his answer was one of the best non-contributory pensions you can have and unless the country goes totally ‘belly up’ then they have to pay you (by ‘belly up’ we are looking at a significant hostile takeover by communists or the country going totally bankrupt - both unlikely).
When it comes to the 63.5%, it will vary as it is trying to map AN EQUIVALENT PRIVATE PENSION to the Armed Forces Pension Schemes. So every few years the Government Actuary Department (GAD) value what our pension would cost using several stable private pension schemes (the usual suspects and not the high-risk ones). They then come to a figure of what that would cost the individual if they were to buy that pension as a percentage of your basic pensionable salary (ie. excluding RRP(F), HTD, LSA, etc...). That figure is published as the SCAPE rate and a link follows on the latest valuation done in Mar 19 that is good for the next few years. The last time it was done it, I think in 2016, it was 51.5%.
Here is a link to the latest valuation:
https://assets.publishing.service.go...8_Feb_2019.pdf
So that’s it, it can be valued and seen as a ‘virtual pot’, but to challenge it you would have to find flaws in the GAD’s independent processes (good luck with that!) or just accept it is about right by running one of the many pension calculators for private pension schemes - that is what I did and decided it was about right.