Going back a bit - 20 years !! - our big whinge was that specialist aircrew flying pay (about a third of our total income) did not count towards our pension although NI contributions were paid on it? - Mahogany Bob (Mr)
One could always go back 40 years to when I believe AVCs (now Added Pension vide
https://www.raf.mod.uk/community/new...contributions/) were introduced and could have ben used to good effect.
Jack