I opted for voluntary redundancy and will be leaving this Dec for exactly this reason. I thought I may as well cut and run whilst I can preserve and take what I have earned before HMG decides military pensions were unaffordable. In my opinion, the writing has been on the wall for some time.
The inference from the BBC article is that you will need to serve until 40 to get a LUMP SUM, but no mention of annual pension until 65. I had heard rumours a last year that something like this was in the offing; this formed a major part of my decision to leave. Face it - we are broke and this debt spiral for Governments has only just begun.
Bill Gross, veteran Bond Investor, wrote a good piece in the FT this week saying that Bond Yields will rally in the near future and the 30yr US T-Bond Rally will end. Governments will need to inflate their way out of debt so in the near future expect interest rates of 7-8%. The sad thing is that leaving with full pension at 38 will mean a lean few years of monthly payments that will not keep pace with inflation. The index linking will kick in at 55 I presume, unless they push the age back to 60 for everyone? I think there will be a mass exedous from the services on this news.
What a kick in the teeth at the very time the Forces have effectively saved the Olympics. Trust no one.