I may be wrong but, does this thread refer to the pension abatement to keep total payment of RO or FTRS personel below their previous pay level? If so, yes it is a bad scheme IMO. On TOFO's point about previous Service pensions, yes they were better than some but, do not forget that the Police had a 50% full pay pension earned in 30 years. The police would also be likely to serve that long if they wished, whereas it was very unlikely that a low ranking serviceman could serve beyond 22 years, or age 38 for a JO, giving approx 30% and 24% of full pay for those cases.
What's that? Oh yes, the Police tax-free lump sum was 4X pension as opposed 3X for the serviceman. Officially, the Police pension was far better because their job was "dangerous".
OAP