I also know that the 2 years in substantive and 3 years in acting is a myth. If you do 1 out of 2 years substantive you get 1/2 the new rate between your old/new rank, and if you do 1 out of 3 or 2 out of 3 you get 1/3 and 2/3 respectively. I did 18 months acting and 14 months substantive in my new rank and got 1/3 plus 1/2 - ie. 0.83 of my new pension on PVR
It wasn't worth doing the extra 10 months as they were going to abte me for my planned FTRS contract anyway!
LJ
PS. I'm pretty sure that QRs can only hold you in for 18 months on PVR anyway.