Originally Posted by
Easy Street
It's a good point. The difference now is that you can keep accruing a AFPS15 pension until age 60, growing at 1/47th (2.1%) of each year's salary. A full AFPS75 pension is roughly 50% of salary, so for index-linking to keep pace you'd need CPI to be running 4.2% higher than the annual pay award. I guess it might be possible for a year or two but it would be surprising if such a situation could last much longer than that.
Easy Street - I think you're wrong on 2 counts fella - which shows that confusion is still out there!
Firstly, there is no maximum number of years' Service that can count towards your pension, i.e, it is not capped at age 60 (page 6 of the AFPS15 booklet). I say this as I personally know of a few people extending beyond 60 (MEOS+) and still flying on the FL.
Secondly, for those on AFPS75 only, the previous dit on pensions being less at age 60, if you leave at that age, compared to leaving at 55 is accurate and doesn't need CPI to be anything like 4.2%. It just needs to be more than the annual pay rise. As a simplified example and using 50% pension and a salary of £60k:
Man A leaves at 55 with a £30k pension. If the CPI was %2.1, then his pension would be £30,630 at 56, £31,273 at 57, £31,929 at 58, £32,600 at 59 and £33,285 at age 60.
Man B stays in the RAF and gets a pay rise of 0%, 1%, 1%, 2% and 0% respectively up to the age of 60, whereby his pay would be £62,430. 50% of this = £31,215 at age 60.
So over the last 5 years, staying in from age 55 - 60 results in a significantly lesser pension for those old boys stuck on AFPS75. This is where McCloud changes everything and as others such as LJ has suggested, it is really good news for some of us.
On a final and just as happy note, I see the launch of 'Armed Forces Pension Awareness Week 2021' which is happening from 13-17 Sep 21. This should be able to answer all those 'unusual' or FAQ's that got missed - for those of us still serving. Add that to the new Pension Calculator predicted for October and we should be in a good position of understanding by the end of the year!