Originally Posted by
Rossian
....and I suspect it might be whoever pays our pensions. In 1965 the average length of time for a full career officer retiring at 55 to draw his pension was - THREE YEARS!!!
My just about to be my F-i-L showed me those figures from the (as it was then)
Officers' Pension Society.
At one of my resettlement financial seminars in about 1996/7 I asked the question again but no-one seemed to know the answer.
ONS did quite a bit of work on this, and the AFPS15 discussion document claimed that in general, those who were
commissioned into the Armed Forces tended to live a little longer than civilian counterparts. Those who were
enlisted lived a slightly shorter life.
• A UK male who was aged 60 in 2010 would generally have a life expectancy of 86 years and a similar female would have a life expectancy of 88 years.
• A retired male Officer who was aged 60 in 2010 would have a life expectancy of 90 and a similar female would have a life expectancy of 92.
• A retired male Other Rank who was aged 60 in 2010 would have a life expectancy of 87 and a similar female would have a life expectancy of 90.
The morale of the story is clear. I should have enlisted for only a couple of years, got commissioned and then identified as female.