That explains a lot :}

PN Looking back, I'm amazed at the encouragement one was given to take up smoking in the Services. When I arrived in Germany aged 18 I didn't smoke but what with crewroom culture and 200 non-tipped 'Senior Service' for ten bob I soon became a smoker. Luckily I was never a heavy smoker, 5/10 a day at the most and I gave up, after several attempts, over 25 year ago. For most of my 20 years service, though, duty free cigs were available to me.

Indeed, Customs used to hand out seized cigarettes to to be shared out amongst the sections at Bruggen where you could go get 200 for free when wanted, eventually all that were left were Menthols.....

Same on Ascension Island, free issue to smokers and non-smokers alike.

I joined a smoking crew on Nimrods. Gradually fewer and fewer smoked until one day the skipper crashed a round. There were no takers and he didn't want to smoke alone. I think he stopped not long after.

Smoking, drinking, rowdy lifestyle and a dangerous job. Some of the attributes previously encouraged, by the service, in most military careers. Also promised, was the pension. I hate to see promises broken :(.

OAP

Jocky,

Yes, thats the one - thanks. :ok:

Once a Pilot,

It isn't just longevity. The Institute of Faculty and Actuaries made the point a couple of years ago that the problem, in the actuarial sense, of (for instance) drawing Reservists into an unfunded scheme after 2 years service is that AFPS is unfunded - where will the extra money come from? One of the points of laying SP off was to make public sector pensions save money and be financially viable (cue talk of kicking cans down road). People living longer is causing problems because in days gone by; you'd have a heart attack and carp it. Now, you can be saved but it costs an absolute fortune.. we're paying too much money to too many people living for too long.

Price Waterhouse Cooper was commissioned to study the differences between officer/other ranks and officer serve to aged 55/officer 'normal' pension benefits. It used Continuous Mortality Investigation (Mortality Projections) and relied upon a series referred to as PNA00, and then rebalanced each demographic. I can't locate the PNA00 series - it would just be a series of numbers; the methodology probably wouldn't be explained anyway. PwC (I think - I stand by to be corrected) simply took the view that officers were similar to a professional cohort in civvy street that lived longer than ORs and a similar cohort. But yes, you make the point about the MoD simply knowing how long folk draw retirement benefits; if DASA knows WHERE we retire to and work.. :ooh:

The PwC report also made the point that you have to be commissioned until aged 55 to really get the benefits of the scheme (one of the 5-6% or so).. and someone who dies early and leaves a 50% survivors benefit really is getting a mucky end of the stick - that aspect of AFPS compares very badly to an uncrystalised personal defined contribution scheme which goes over completely to the survivor, free of tax. I do think there should be scope for allowing flexible, higher AFPS income for those servicemen and women with reduced life expectancy; that would make for fairness, but an unwieldy and complicated political nightmare.

GR4 techie,

It wouldn't do you no good - those who aspire to socio-economic greatness tend to show smaller increases in lonevity benefits! ;)

Told my missus when I 'go' to stick me in the chest freezer and still recieve the full pension :ok:

PN,

I remember the cigar parades at Akrotiri - I never smoked but I remember NAAFI wanted them stopped though. For weeks afterwards, the armour would be thick with clouds of King Eddys; life was hell when we were battoned down but god.. we were a refined bunch.

dc,

Be careful! :eek:

Navy widow jailed over pension fraud - Echelon Wealthcare

The death clock says I'll be around till just before my 93rd birthday. I intend to celebrate my century with a congratulatory email from King William and the thought of the pension trustees saying "Is that bugger STILL around?"

On thread again. Looking at the obituary pages, most of the older notices are ex-service. The suggestion is that the military only take those who are fit to begin with, and that will skew the figures.

Thanks Al, I appreciate your efforts and info. I feel an FOI, requesting the historical pension payment statistics of service personel serving 30+ years and retiring at age 55 would be interesting. They have the info.

OAP

OAP,

No snags, I have one computer set aside purely for investment and retirement study and research. Sad, I know. :(

The difference between being 'Normal' and 'Optimistic' is a staggering 16 years in my case. I love those surveys, in fact I think I can't stop smiling now. Just off to tell my neighbour that it will be sunny until Xmas.

I have got around 11.000.000 seconds left.

I had better start my goodbyes now.

Just did my "death clock" on the You.Gov site and it says I will live till age 150

OAP

Death clock. 16 Oct 2043

Is there a fighting cock in the house? Yam sing!!

Already way ahead of you on that one. I came out on the 1975 redundancy scheme which offered a pro rata pension if you had a minimum 9 years qualifying service, thus I have been drawing a service pension since 3 days after my 30th birthday. In actual money terms I've already drawn far more than I was ever paid as salary and my time on a pension is already three times the twelve years I served. If I make it to 90 (admittedly pretty unlikely with my genes) I'll have been on a pension for 60 years.

Worth making an effort for!

I kept clicking and it came up with a different day each time.

I'm going for the one in 2055 when I'll be 99 and 11 months.

There's no box for egg whisk driver though...bound to affect it.

I remember the original thread on this subject. When I retired (for the first time) after 22 years, the stat's were that; if you were in any of the armed forces, police, ambulance or fire service, if you served until age 55, 75% died within 5 years of retirement.

There is a staggering difference in the death clock between being a pessimist (dead in 2017) and an optimist (dead on my 92nd birthday in 2054).