The impact of the R+.5% cap on the final benefits of members in their 20s and 30s is huge.
Is it ? Nobody knows what the impact is. It could be nil, it could be half. How big you think it will be depends upon how optimistic you are about future pay rises. I'm still slightly amused that those who think NATS management is out to screw them at every opportunity then put large pay rises into the modeller. For the benefit of the controllers who apparently got an average of RPI+2.5 over recent years (the union figure from the briefings which I haven't checked) those of us in other grades got between RPI+0.2 and RPI+0.6 apart from 2006 when we got less than RPI but made up to about RPI with a non pensionable cash bonus. I'll let you decide which is most likely in the future.