PA Spine Med Discharge?
 

Gents, (and Ladies)

Having been a lurking voyeur since Beagle was still bashing the circuit I am after a bit of advice.

I am a Serving PA Flt Lt and have recently received a permanent medical downgrade. I will soon be before an employment board to see which, if any ground trades will be offered. Not wanting to jump the gun on that I am pretty sure I will take the QR1421 option of receiving a Medical Discharge. I am a member and have spoken with the Forces Pension Society, they are very helpful but have never seen any Tables which are used to calculate a Medical Pension for a PA Officer. Simply using a representative rank such as Wg Cdr or Gp Capt, which receives a similar salary would not work, and they believe, as is the case with Service Doctors that possibly taking an Admin Discharge will be the best way to go. Because the Med Pension will have to be worked out on my rank.... and not my salary :eek:

So while I chase all the formal avenues, ie Handbrake house and Glasgow I was wondering if any members here have been Med Discharged as Serving PA, and if so what happened on the pension front?

Poorly PA

I will PM you

Parallel Track

The system says I am unable to PM because of your settings.

Hi PT,
I've tried messaging u direct... it says the same to me ie I can't pm you...told you I was a newbie at this posting m'larky!! Any suggestions?

How about setting up a throwaway email address and posting it here until you get in contact, then edit to delete the email.

PARALLEL TRACK,

It looks like you can send an email via PPRuNe to Poorly PA.

Bruised,

Brilliant!!

[email protected]

Cheers!!

Pleasure and good luck. Been there but not as PA.

I've no idea what 'PA Spine' Med Discharge means but, if it's any help and they are offering ground trade training, you could do worse than ATC.
Looking ahead, civilian ATCOs are well paid and I found it a pleasant RAF ground tour.

Basil - PA is Professional Aviator; would have been called Spec Aircrew in your day.

Thanks, Chris. Do recollect thinking that, if I'd been offered Specialist Aircrew, I'd have stayed in.
Probably have been a bad decision.

Still unable to pm using the email address via pprune!:ugh::ugh::ugh:

PT,

As bruised says a temporary email for me is [email protected] I would be very grateful if you could email using your normal civvy account, direct to that.

Many thanks.

Poorly PA

Tried a few things but none work thus far. I am going to have to wait until the PMs work as I am still in the 'system' when it comes to Med Discharge. I need to stay below the radar horizon for now. Good luck until we can connect using our call signs.

Parallel - set up a similarly anonymous yahoo/Gmail account and email him from there. PM's here are notoriously finnicky

Would be interested to hear what happened eventually with your Med Discharge and subsequent award...... My turn now!

I would be interested too. I am NCA on PAS and facing a med discharge this year. Tried the Pension Society route but as I cover 75/05 and 15 pension schemes it all got a bit confusing for me.....

PMs to you both...

Suspect this issue will raise its head far more often with re-joiners and the new retirement age of 60. Not sure the RAF has yet taken the extra 5 years into account when it comes to fitness/medical standards. Might be useful to others to post any results here (no names no pack drill etc).... - asking for a friend - I'm still well (enough) so far....

Have PM'd HA and BJ.

Just as an update and please forgive the lack of technical knowledge, I am sure some admin guru will be able to add to what I put here.

Medical discharge pensions are worked out from a set of Tables, and are slightly different (marginally better) than you would get as far as the standard Pension on departure, I'm not talking about tax status or index linked here, just the amount. The only problem with that system for PA Spine individuals is that there are no tables that cover the PA Spine, meaning when you ask the Forces Pension Society for help they can only work out your length of service and rank. This means with 30 years service as a Flt Lt you get a very different figure to 30 years Flt Lt and near top rate PA. However the good news was that after a significant amount of head scratching at High Wycombe and Glasgow my pension was awarded at the rate it would have been if I was leaving on normal grounds, with a few minor medical benefits as well.

Hope that is of some help to someone.