Last post, then I'll let it lie.....
Say my pay was £70,000 in Apr 2010. With a pay freeze in place, it will still be £70,000 in Apr 2012. With inflation running at 5%, after the two years £70,000 will buy less, and the "real value" will have decreased by about 10%.
If in Apr 2010 I have served 30 years, my pension would be 30/70ths of my salary, £30,000. In Apr 2012 my pension would be 32/70ths of my salary, £32,000. Hence my pension has gone from £30,000 to £32,000, a 6.6% rise. With inflation running at 10% over those 2 years, the "real value" of my pension has decreased by approx. 3.3%. If I was younger it would have decreased by even less.
A pay freeze means that EVERYONE in the military will see their salary effectively decrease by the value of inflation. By contrast their pension will effectively decrease by an amount that will vary from the total value of inflation, for a small group of older people at the top end of the pension schemes, to virtually nothing for younger individuals who have recently qualified for an immediate pension. However, the value of the pension certainly isn't going up!
Just think what the "value" of pensions would be going up by if there was no pay freeze and inflation was lower! Which is exactly what was happening for the years prior to Apr 10.
At the end of the day the military pension scheme is a bl*#dy good deal!