I've looked into this and it would have affected me if I had stayed. If a resettler needs to gain professional qualifications, sometimes the lead time for courses and CPE can cover a number of years especially in the financial services and engineering areas. At 50, this gives people up to five years to do this and leave in an orderly manner at 55. However, it seems that a lot of middle-ranked officers in the RAF have been granted extensions to 60 and they now have to wait until they are 58 to start resettlement. Just hope they have adequate wheel chair facilities available...