loss of Tax free gratuity
Having recently left the service and attended the Pensions brief given to service leavers. The retd Lt Cdr informed us that the gratuity and pensions were under review and that the tax man was wanting his slice. He said, what was most likely was that the voluntary commutation (the normal gratuity is compulsory comutation) would be withdrawn. This means that you would still get your basic gratuity but would not get the additional tax free amount released by commutation. Thereby taking home a larger pension which would of course be taxed and would increase the tax paid on anything else that you earn. The big downer is that there are no reserved rights to voluntary commute your pension!