Quick gratuity question

[LeeME3]

Hi, to those of you have left in the last few years (since JPA), when did you get your final pay and gratuity?

My resettlement advisor is somewhat vague on the issue and a house purchase hinges on the gratuity so grateful for any real-world experiences.

Thanks!

[MrBernoulli]

All this happened 2005 .....

The final payslip was like a normal month - I retired on the 20th of the month and the pay was in my account on the 23rd of the same month. The gratuity payment advice slip I still have states "Payment due at bank not before 27th ..." of my retirement month. All quite quick, really!

But first you must make sure that you have been through the multiple visits and endless form-filling at Station Bluntie HQ . I'm sure being pedantic about ensuring all the t's were crossed and i's dotted helped!

[tempest tom]

I have just left in December, I was told 10 days from my last day by the adminers. I left on the 16th and the last pay and gratuity went in the bank on the 30th, but it was over the xmas period. Had a good New Year!

I still recieved a payslip for January, but all the boxes were full of zero's!!

[CRM Monkey]

Don't forget to apply for it..... You'd be surprised, from what I remember (2 years ago) there was some paperwork to do. I can't think why you wouldn't want it so seems silly to have to apply.

[Captain Radar....]

Left in the last few weeks. Gratuity paid 10 working days after my last day, paid for the last few days of service at the end of the month as usual.
Good luck with the house purchase.

[seafuryfan]

...if you trust 'the system' to automatically sort out your pension and gratuity because you've PVR'd, , you will receive a letter from the the AFPS a few weeks later 'reminding' you that you haven't sent them form AFPS1. This tells them how much (if any) you want to commute, confirms bank account details etc.

They will also tell you that you can do it online via JPA. Predictably enough, the link to the form is not 'AFPS1', but '(PENS1)'. The online version is pretty straighforward, although I did ring JPAC to explain one or two things.

Expecting another letter telling me I havn't done something else, shortly.

[Hastalavista]

LeeM3

I have left the RAF on retirement during the past couple of months and my payment of gratuity, final pay, and pension (in that order for me) have all been within a month - all as described at the Financial Aspects of Resettlement (FAR) briefing at the RRC.

The simple answer is that your final pay will be at the end of the month in which you retire - it is done through JPA as normal. The gratuity may be before or afterwards depending on just when in the month you retire.

My experience has been as follows:

A letter from SPVA came to my home within 2 weeks of retirement stating what my "Service Pension" and "tax free lump sum" (ie gratuity) would be. Seven days after the date of this letter the gratuity was paid into my bank account by JPA.

My final Service pay was paid by JPA at the end of the month in which I retired - it was just like any other month's pay, including the payslip going to my old place of work.

Two days after the date of the SPVA letter, xafinity paymaster sent me a letter telling me which day of the month they would pay me my pension "in arrears" at "one twelfth of the annual rate". At the FAR we were told that it would be the same day of the month as your last day of service, and that has been the case for me. The first payment duly arrived as promised.

The key thing is to ensure that the AFPS1 is sent off in good time - all things pension and gratuity flow from this application form. I filled it in on JPA and I found that most of my details, including the bank account, were inserted by JPA for me - they only needed checking and were correct. Another advantage of submitting via JPA was that I received a receipt in my workflow and did not have to wonder if it had got there in the post.

Hope things go smoothly for you.

HLV

[Chainkicker]

Few years back but got usual pay chit for end of month. Got another one with gratuity etc on it paid within ten days of final day of service. Then got several more with 0.00 on them. Spent 4 months getting back the rent I was charged despite handing over quarter and making sure leave pass was submitted correctly for terminal leave etc.

Dont forget to advise the taxman if you are taking a "career break" and wont be PAYE so they adjust your tax code correctly.
I did just that.
Then next month ring them again having just received a new tax coding (incorrect).
Then ring them the month after when they decide to send you one with BR as the tax code (30% off straight away).
Then ring them again the month after that when you get another incorrect tax code.
Then chill when you finally get the correct tax code assigned :ok:

[Winchweight]

Left in Dec 10, got gratuity 28 days later.

Pension - filled out the forms and sent to tax office as I now pay tax overseas, haven't heard a thing.

[Geehovah]

I retired last year on the 17th of the month. My experience was similar to others.

A full salary on the first of that month (in arrears).
In the first month after retirement, a pro rata final salary payment for (17) x days and a pro rata pension payment for the balance of days.
My pension was paid on 20th of the following month at 1/12th of the annual rate.
My gratuity was paid on 27th of my month of retirement (10 days after my exit date).

Two top tips.

Make sure you receive an acknowledgement slip for your pension application. My first application disappeared into the ether.Noone from HR followed up and it was only me checking which uncovered the problem.

If you have ever lodged an FMA make sure it's cancelled. Its almost impossible to find out from JPA. If you still have one lodged, the donkeys at JPA will send the balance of your gratuity to your old overseas account. It sounds impossible but when I returned from overseas, I had to adjust my FMD over a few months to get money in the correct place. The final adjustment was to a figure well in excess of my salary so all my salary would go to my UK account. It's then almost invisible and mine was not subsequently cancelled, although I had no idea of the implication. Don't think that the form you fill out saying where you want your pension and gratuity to go is good enough to actually send it there! A large chunk of my gratuity ended up in financial limbo for weeks and noone thought to check with me before sending it overseas to a closed account.

Also don't forget you are removed from JPA on your retirement date so all activity after that date is via phone to HR/JPA.

[F3sRBest]

Gratuity well within 30 days after last day of Service - but make sure you send all the Pension forms in and (as someone above said) get acknowledgements!

[SirPeterHardingsLovechild]

Thanks for the thread and the replies, it's been most useful for me. I'll be able to contribute in a few weeks time, although I'm on a Med Discharge and things are different, so I'll putting the Med side of things on a recent Med Discharge thread.

I can agree with seafuryfan that although I had a hard copy AFPS1 form in my Service Leavers Pack Up, I chose to do it on JPA and it was the wrong form.

On a medical matter, I'm afraid I was lacking in confidence in a few people I spoke to on the helpline, and the third time I sent requested paperwork, I did it recorded delivery.

I hope that isn't considered rude in scribbly land. I am at their mercy.

[Strictly Jungly]

My Last day was 5 Mar 2011. Received Gratuity on 15 Mar. I await my first pension payment (early Apr). I used the Pension Calculator in June 2010, final payments were slightly up on Calculator figures. All went very smoothly.

Regards

SJ