Mach Two
RN/RM/RAF 2-stars and above and Army 1 stars and above are not subject to the redundancy schemes. For them, there is no guarantee of employment beyond their current tour. So no job to go to means out of the Service with normal terminal benefits; however in some cases they can be awarded a payment under the Directed Early Retirement (DER) Scheme.
Full details are in
JSP 764 Part 6 Directed Early Retirement available on the internet.
INTRODUCTION
0101. The DER Scheme enables the Armed Forces to pay compensation in specified circumstances when terminating a senior officer’s employment unexpectedly prior to the individual’s Normal Retirement Age (NRA).It applies to officers of 1-star rank and above.
CRITERIA FOR PAYMENT OF COMPENSATION
0102. A Special Capital Payment (SCP) or Compensation Lump Sum (CLS) will be awarded under DER arrangements if the relevant Service is able to demonstrate that there is no reasonable prospect of suitable employment becoming available for the officer within a reasonable timescale and it can be shown that the lack of availability of further employment is related to:
(a) the removal or regrading of a post after an individual has taken up the post or has been notified of appointment to it1, which could not have been foreseen or prevented at the time of appointment, and
(b) an unplanned reduction in the number of posts available to the Service (including potential joint appointments) which the officer was qualified to fill and which was caused by restructuring or changes in employment requirements within the Service or the Department or external employing organisation e.g. NATO, UN.
In any event, DER must represent value for money such that the net effect of any SCP or CLS is at worst case cost neutral but ideally results in a net saving to Defence.
Footnote 1 to Sub-para 0102a reads:
For Army officers of 1-star and above and for RN/RM and RAF officers of 2-star and above, the assumption will be that service will cease following the end of the current tour, without payment of a SCP, if no offer of further employment is made at least 6 months before the end of tour. This is reflected in the flowchart at Annex A.