Al,
At my end of the trench, there are certainly rumours doing the rounds that a new scheme will be introduced, and which any future offers of promotion, changes in ToS etc will be tied to; the suggestion is that any new scheme will make AFPS 05 look positively generous. Furthermore, individuals will be on ToS that are essentially promote to wg cdr by 45 or leave rather than staying in rank on assimilation or as a sqn ldr until 55.
I can’t speak for everyone, but the whole pensions issue is creating a huge amount of uncertainty amongst my friends and I. The way we see things panning out, we are likely to be on a hiding which ever way we turn, hence the serious consideration being given many I know to cutting and running with whatever we have at 38 before that gets taken from us.
Assuming we stayed in and were fortunate enough to have the chicken bones and runes fall in the right order so that the old crone in Manning could make a guess about promotion to wg cdr, not only do we currently face the potential prospect of a tax bill under the govt’s new reduced lifetime allowance levels, but we also face having to go onto a new, potentially far less generous scheme to satisfy the private sector’s blood lust / mob-rule mentality to bring everyone down to the lowest common pensions denominator.
If we turn down promotion to try and protect what pension rights we have managed to accrue, also probably giving quality of life a bit of a boost by jumping off the career treadmill, we could potentially find careers prematurely cut short.
However, the apparent reluctance of anyone to pass on information is doing huge amounts of damage by breeding a climate of uncertainty and not a certain amount of fear for the future. The only announcements I have seen on pensions are multiple re-issues of the same DIN talking about the new life time allowance limits; it’s almost like Dave TV, but with pensions repeats rather than Top Gear. I’m sure many in the private sector would say welcome to the real world, but I’m equally fairly certain that if you’re the SH pilot carrying a cab full of troops to an insert, a FJ mate trying to do a danger close drop, the IntO trying to coordinate multiple conflicting assessments so the package commander can make a decision, the staff officer running the joint fires desk in theatre trying to deconflict intimate fire support for the insert that’s about to go in, that you really don’t want the extra worry.
So in short, yes, there are rumours – at least at this end of the trench. Yes they are hugely unsettling, and no we aren’t being told anything other than wait out.
Last edited by Melchett01; 15th Feb 2011 at 11:18.