Wrathmonk
I left in the '96 Redundancy after 31+ yrs and so far I calculate that it has cost the Defence Budget in excess of £350,000 - and I still have 7 years to go to my "Three score years and ten". Costs today would be even higher because of wage inflation. Some of that money is, of course, retrieved by HMG in the form of taxation - but there is no guarantee that it will find its way back to MOD. There were, in addition, extra costs to HMG in the form of unemployment benefit at a time of high unemployment.
Then there are the hidden costs that do not appear on the balance sheet. How do you put a price on hard earned experience that prevents the Accident Rate from reaching an unacceptable level? When that experience is diluted by redundancy the Accident rate goes up.
A smaller RAF means less promotion - therefore more people leave the Service earlier and the experience level goes down even more. The result of that is an almost inevitable increase in the Accident rate. It also means an increase in extra duties for those remaining which again affects peoples attitude towards remaining in the Service. The result is a vicious circle which it is difficult to break.
Its all a far cry from 1965 when I joined and my daily rate of pay was 86.25p per day (before Tax and National Insurance).