New taxation legislation surrounding redundancy payments.
Back in 2012, a few dozen officers were let down very badly when they weren't made properly aware of the changes surrounding retirement income in respect of them being made redundant between the twelve and sixteen year points of their careers. The Armed Forces (Redundancy, Resettlement and Gratuity Earnings Schemes) Order 2010 was introduced very quickly and quietly - the guardians were discovered asleep at their desks.
On Tuesday of this week, the government laid before Parliament fresh legislation surrounding the taxation of redundancy payments. It has also recently published a consultation about what redundancy payments in a (possible) new round of public sector redundancies should look like. It doesn't take the brains of a rocket engineer to work out the two events may not be entirely coincidental.
There is much to fret over. In particular, tax treatment on payments over £30,000 from April of next year. The new treatment of payments in lieu of notice (PILONs) is also worrying. Employers often terminate the employment prematurely by making a PILON instead of giving the full period of notice, and the tax treatment of this type of payment could raise particular difficulties.
If the employment contract expressly gives the employer discretion to make a payment in lieu of notice, and the employer makes such a payment, then the payment is treated as taxable earnings arising from the contract. And that's what you're going to have to looking out for, as well as other gems (such as HMRC reserving the right to alter the £30,000 benchmark).
If you're a member of the Forces Pension Society, contact them, and make sure they stay on top of this. It does, after all, affect retirement income. Just ask the Unpensionables.