A baby is born today, AFPS 15.
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A baby is born today, AFPS 15.
Greetings to the new military pension scheme. Don't forget, average pays!
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...-2015-guidance
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...-2015-guidance
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M.01,
Thanks for that idea! My Granddaughter had a son this morning, 2.am, and I understand that they haven't yet committed to a name. I think I'll suggest Damien. Thanks again.
Thanks for that idea! My Granddaughter had a son this morning, 2.am, and I understand that they haven't yet committed to a name. I think I'll suggest Damien. Thanks again.
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Dear ValMORNA,
Not Damien. It's so last century. In fact, don't try to influence her. But do let us know your grandson's name.
Oh, and Melchett,
I think we're already up the creek.
Not Damien. It's so last century. In fact, don't try to influence her. But do let us know your grandson's name.
Oh, and Melchett,
I think we're already up the creek.
Last edited by octavian; 1st Apr 2015 at 20:34. Reason: Added comment
Those who understand the situation have not been properly briefed...
We passed Sh!t Creek in 2006 when we entered Helmand with a single battlegroup, we are now lost in the middle of Sh!t Ocean.
Our boat is leaking (built by British Waste-O-Space with a second to be built in a marginal Scottish constituency)...
One paddle has broken, the spare paddle (taken as a capability holiday in 2010) is currently being sourced by a 'smart procurement' civil servant at DES...
Our boat is surrounded by a fleet of ISIS/AQ/Russian rigid raiders taking pot shots...
...and there is an ominous post-election, post-Afghan shaped thundercloud on the near horizon, threatening to sink the boat with an 'agile, adaptable and capable' flavoured lightning bolt.
Good luck to all who stay!
Our boat is leaking (built by British Waste-O-Space with a second to be built in a marginal Scottish constituency)...
One paddle has broken, the spare paddle (taken as a capability holiday in 2010) is currently being sourced by a 'smart procurement' civil servant at DES...
Our boat is surrounded by a fleet of ISIS/AQ/Russian rigid raiders taking pot shots...
...and there is an ominous post-election, post-Afghan shaped thundercloud on the near horizon, threatening to sink the boat with an 'agile, adaptable and capable' flavoured lightning bolt.
Good luck to all who stay!
Currently sitting in the office on leave doing admin and stumbled across a fact which hasn't been widely published and many may not realise:
If you are paying into an AVC to top up death in service or enhance spousal benefits, those AVCs will now cease owing to AFPS 15 providing comparable benefits automatically. Obvious when you think about it really, but with the pace of life and ever changing policy how many have time to sit down and go through the fine detail.
If you're paying into an added years AVC there's no change; everyone else will see a bit more in their monthly pay.
If you are paying into an AVC to top up death in service or enhance spousal benefits, those AVCs will now cease owing to AFPS 15 providing comparable benefits automatically. Obvious when you think about it really, but with the pace of life and ever changing policy how many have time to sit down and go through the fine detail.
If you're paying into an added years AVC there's no change; everyone else will see a bit more in their monthly pay.
As Courtney noted on another thread, what a great state of affairs when we have to come on here and Egoat for advice because the MOD can't/won't explain pensions.
However, and I swear I don't spend all my time reading pensions and tax bumf, an article in the DT on lifetime allowances got me thinking. After a bit of hunting I stumbled across this from HMRC - technical advice on when the lifetime allowance doesn't apply.
http://http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manual...SM03106050.htm
To save you reading the whole lot, the key bit is as follows
I know I can read, and on a good day, with the wind in the right direction and a suitable amount of caffeine in the system, have moments of lucidity and maybe even occasional flashes of intelligence. To my little brain, the above suggests that AFPS is not subject to the pensions tax lifetime allowance and therefore we might not have as much to worry about as first thought - especially if the govt reduces the allowance even further in the next budget. What have I got wrong or what am I missing???? And if we aren't subject to a life time allowance, does that read across to the annual allowance which seems to be shrinking rapidly by the minute? Or do we fall foul of our pensions being titled as 'early departure payments' until you hit SPA? That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
However, and I swear I don't spend all my time reading pensions and tax bumf, an article in the DT on lifetime allowances got me thinking. After a bit of hunting I stumbled across this from HMRC - technical advice on when the lifetime allowance doesn't apply.
http://http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manual...SM03106050.htm
To save you reading the whole lot, the key bit is as follows
Certain schemes listed in the Registered Pension Schemes (Prescribed Schemes and Occupations) Regulations 2005 give their members a right to take pension and lump sum benefits below the normal minimum pension age. These schemes are
The Armed Forces Pension Scheme
The British Transport Police Force Superannuation Fund,
The Firefighters’ Pension Scheme,
The Firemen’s Pension Scheme (Northern Ireland)
The Gurkha Pension Scheme,
The Police Pension Scheme,
The Police Service of Northern Ireland pension Scheme, and
The Police Service of Northern Ireland Full Time Reserve Pension Scheme.
Where a member of such a scheme takes a pension or lump sum benefits before the normal minimum pension age, there will be no reduction in the individual’s lifetime allowance (see RPSM03106020).
The Armed Forces Pension Scheme
The British Transport Police Force Superannuation Fund,
The Firefighters’ Pension Scheme,
The Firemen’s Pension Scheme (Northern Ireland)
The Gurkha Pension Scheme,
The Police Pension Scheme,
The Police Service of Northern Ireland pension Scheme, and
The Police Service of Northern Ireland Full Time Reserve Pension Scheme.
Where a member of such a scheme takes a pension or lump sum benefits before the normal minimum pension age, there will be no reduction in the individual’s lifetime allowance (see RPSM03106020).
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I commend your fortitude for engaging with HMRC tech. Do you want a job?
If your scheme allows you to take benefits before the normal pension age and the early withdrawal isn't due to extenuating circumstances, ill health etc, your LTA is reduced by 2.5% pa to reflect the premature crystallisation. However, with AFPS, your LTA isn't reduced because the scheme is one which is protected.
It's saying that if you retire and crystallise benefits before normal pension age of fifty, because you're in AFPS, you're subject to protection.. not that the LTA doesn't apply in the wider sense of it dropping. And you can then be demobbed and continue to accrue benefits to the normal LTA of the day with Virgin, BA etc.
Osborne is likely to reduce pension tax relief for HRT Payers from 40% to c.25-33% for everyone, on March 16th. He won't want to alienate the heartland so I wouldn't be surprised if he raises the LTA again (before 2020) to appeal to them. He may even decide to do away with it completely, giving someone else down the line the chance to earn kudos by once more, reining it in.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
If your scheme allows you to take benefits before the normal pension age and the early withdrawal isn't due to extenuating circumstances, ill health etc, your LTA is reduced by 2.5% pa to reflect the premature crystallisation. However, with AFPS, your LTA isn't reduced because the scheme is one which is protected.
It's saying that if you retire and crystallise benefits before normal pension age of fifty, because you're in AFPS, you're subject to protection.. not that the LTA doesn't apply in the wider sense of it dropping. And you can then be demobbed and continue to accrue benefits to the normal LTA of the day with Virgin, BA etc.
Osborne is likely to reduce pension tax relief for HRT Payers from 40% to c.25-33% for everyone, on March 16th. He won't want to alienate the heartland so I wouldn't be surprised if he raises the LTA again (before 2020) to appeal to them. He may even decide to do away with it completely, giving someone else down the line the chance to earn kudos by once more, reining it in.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
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Melchett,
Well done. Good research. I have just returned from a spell away where I was lucky enough to be working along side a very smart admin bloke. He was telling me much the same thing so it's good to see it see it from an independent source.
As you and Courtney rightly say, isn't it crazy that we have to come here for financial advice on military pensions? We'll be coming here for gen about our new aircraft next!
Thanks.
Well done. Good research. I have just returned from a spell away where I was lucky enough to be working along side a very smart admin bloke. He was telling me much the same thing so it's good to see it see it from an independent source.
As you and Courtney rightly say, isn't it crazy that we have to come here for financial advice on military pensions? We'll be coming here for gen about our new aircraft next!
Thanks.
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As you and Courtney rightly say, isn't it crazy that we have to come here for financial advice on military pensions?
Mixed
These are frontline phone operators. The big boys knowledge-wise (underwriters for example) are several layers back and usually inaccessible to the public and often us intermediaries too.
I expect it is exactly the same in the public sector - the people you "interface" with will often be limited in what they know and what they can do.
Not saying this is in any way correct - I'm just saying it is the modern world and therefore makes forums like this, where people with real experience and real knowledge lurk, all the more valuable.
Al R
If I read your post correctly, you are saying that if your AFPS goes into payment before 50 and then you start another pension (ie. with BA, Virgin or even AFPS 15 if you retired early on AFPS75) then the sums of money paid on your retirement before age 50 do not count in the LTA calculation? (which I think is taxed at 25% over £1M on retirement).
Is that correct?
LJ
If I read your post correctly, you are saying that if your AFPS goes into payment before 50 and then you start another pension (ie. with BA, Virgin or even AFPS 15 if you retired early on AFPS75) then the sums of money paid on your retirement before age 50 do not count in the LTA calculation? (which I think is taxed at 25% over £1M on retirement).
Is that correct?
LJ
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No, they do count. But because AFPS is a protected scheme, if you draw benefits before the normal pension age you don't get the arbitrary reduction (2.5% per annum) applied to your LTA thereafter.
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I can see why some sort of change could happen, I'm finishing off a blog on it. Namely, if Osborne reduces the pension tax relief rate to a flat 30% instead of 45/40/20% (depending on your marginal rate), it stands to grossly disadvantage anyone not in a final salary scheme; more so, those of us who benefit from, or who have benefited from, membership of a public sector final salary scheme.
The state wants to simplify company administration but anyone still offering a final salary scheme will pull its payroll hair out coming to terms with administering this. The other option, changing the theme of the annual allowance instead of just the limit, could allow a core benefit as DB accrual, and then transiting to DC terms for pension income over, say, £20,000-£25,000; that's certainly something else he could consider at some point.
As could combining the annual and lifetime pension and ISA allowance. I don't think he's so clumsy as to simply reduce it; this would impact on Flt Lt PAS, crusty old MACR, Sqn Ldr etc, rather, he seems to be gauging feedback and setting the scene. But he, and IDS, are certainly in belligerent mood right now. He still has three years plus to ride out the carnage and still kiss enough babies to get himself elected, so if he did want to rock out some bad news, why would he wait?
Al Rush | Lifetime Allowance
The state wants to simplify company administration but anyone still offering a final salary scheme will pull its payroll hair out coming to terms with administering this. The other option, changing the theme of the annual allowance instead of just the limit, could allow a core benefit as DB accrual, and then transiting to DC terms for pension income over, say, £20,000-£25,000; that's certainly something else he could consider at some point.
As could combining the annual and lifetime pension and ISA allowance. I don't think he's so clumsy as to simply reduce it; this would impact on Flt Lt PAS, crusty old MACR, Sqn Ldr etc, rather, he seems to be gauging feedback and setting the scene. But he, and IDS, are certainly in belligerent mood right now. He still has three years plus to ride out the carnage and still kiss enough babies to get himself elected, so if he did want to rock out some bad news, why would he wait?
Al Rush | Lifetime Allowance
I'd be really suprised if they did lower the lifetime limit to £750K ... Osborne is supposed to be vaguely intelligent.
Such a futher reductions effectively kill off pensions at a time when the Government is desperately trying to get people to take responsibility for their old age provision. I don't even think you'd have to be a high flier to hit the 750K mark, just lucky on the back of some hard work to put money aside from an early age in some well selected investments and let compounding do the rest. And if you suddenly find yourself with the prospect of a 55% punitive tax on your successful investment endeavours, why would you bother? Is there a govt policy we don't know about to force us into reliance on the state in old age and therefore compliance?
Moving from the general to the military specifically, as you say, I can see such a move impacting on the likes of sqn ldrs and flt lts on PAS. Was that the intent to hitting these outrageously averagely salaried fat cats? So having already reduced pensions and messed around with pay, does the government really think people are going to hang around to have the bat inserted again? As soon as people realise there is no way to pull out of the pension without alternative arrangements whilst still receiving an abated salary it will only serve to exacerbate the rush to the exit.
This is definitely a be careful what you wish for moment for Gideon.
PS: thanks for the kind job offer Al, not sure your clients would quite appreciate my ' close enough for government work' approach!
Such a futher reductions effectively kill off pensions at a time when the Government is desperately trying to get people to take responsibility for their old age provision. I don't even think you'd have to be a high flier to hit the 750K mark, just lucky on the back of some hard work to put money aside from an early age in some well selected investments and let compounding do the rest. And if you suddenly find yourself with the prospect of a 55% punitive tax on your successful investment endeavours, why would you bother? Is there a govt policy we don't know about to force us into reliance on the state in old age and therefore compliance?
Moving from the general to the military specifically, as you say, I can see such a move impacting on the likes of sqn ldrs and flt lts on PAS. Was that the intent to hitting these outrageously averagely salaried fat cats? So having already reduced pensions and messed around with pay, does the government really think people are going to hang around to have the bat inserted again? As soon as people realise there is no way to pull out of the pension without alternative arrangements whilst still receiving an abated salary it will only serve to exacerbate the rush to the exit.
This is definitely a be careful what you wish for moment for Gideon.
PS: thanks for the kind job offer Al, not sure your clients would quite appreciate my ' close enough for government work' approach!
Last edited by Melchett01; 3rd Feb 2016 at 19:20.