Indeed - couldn't agree more with this..
So if you have an option point 2014/15, I think an awful lot of people will be looking to bank what they have before they find themselves scrabbling round for a job at 55 whilst waiting for the pension to kick in. The cynic in me says any such scheme to stop you taking your pension at 55 whilst leaving you trying to find a job is a deliberate ploy to get people to either PVR or leave at an option point so they don't have to pay redundancy.
Kreuger, your post last night is about right and there will be ringfenced rights, but hey - who knows what tomorrow brings with this bunch? Will there
ever be an end to this dreadful mismanagement? I would like Rutland to declare UDI and be done with it, I'm just so fed up with paying taxes to people I wouldn't trust to run a coffee swindle. I even had a client ask me last week about transferring an accrued AFPS 'pot' to a private pension (NOT a good idea in that instance I should add) in order to protect it from future uncertainty - that question would have been unheard of a couple of years ago.
There is much that those guys on your sqn could be doing to protect themselves. However, the g'ment is saying that it is that short of money that the National Employmment Savings Trust (NEST) pension scheme could be deferred. If those mates of yours were 50 and working for some civvy organisation, they would be even more seriously stuffed - paying through the nose to offset the start up costs for an expensive scheme and then retiring
before the costs are reduced
. But I hope they are thinking beyond their AFPS entitlement to offset and mitigate potential bad news.
Servicemen and women in their 40s/early50s have some really difficult (easy maybe?!) decisions to make right now.