MOD Pension Debacle
 

Can anyone recommend a good Solicitor that deal with MOD pensions?

Try the Forces Pension Society first - it's free and they are very knowledgeable.
Old Duffer

I don't think FPS is free but its not much and they are very helpful.

Save yourself a fortune and talk to the MOD pension section in Kentigern House Glasgow. It's free and impartial!!!!! Believe it or not they work for you.

If you want/need a debacle have a shufti' at the 1975 Pension'.

Aw diter,

I may have missed something here. What’s up with AFPS75? If there’s something i need to know about I would be grateful for an update.

I have sent a PM to see if I can help.

Pension Payment
 

I am not describing my question as having anything to do with the above mentioned debacle. I am just tagging a question on here in the hope of getting a knowledgeable answer.

My last day in uniform was 20 Sep 22. When, therefore, should I expect to receive my lump sum and what, if anything, do I need to do to make it happen?

I completed all the relevant paperwork before leaving and was told I had nothing left to do. My UK address and bank details have remained the same as they were before I left. I am out of the country though and haven’t read any correspondence from Equiniti.

The answer I have had so far is to expect my lump sum to arrive in 30 working days (it’s now been more than that) and that all payments will be back dated.

I just wondered if anybody has any recent experience of whether the 30 days is a good benchmark or whether it will be the first pay run after the 30 days (standard JPAC Glasgow answer even though I realise pensions are done differently) or one of any number of other such excuses.

I have some Champagne on ice which is waiting on an answer!

BV

Until recently BV, it was 7-10 working days. By my arithmetic, 30 wd for you is Remembrance Fri next week and I understand they are leaning towards 20-30 days for now. Fingers crossed for today or next week.

GXC
 

I personally make today day 34 (assuming a Mon-Fri working week). I’m happy to accept a few days grace but I’ll be annoyed if I end up in the ‘wait until the end of the month’ cycle.

Is this all just the MOD’s last chance to give you a kick in the nuts before you leave? To remind us how ‘people are our best asset’?!

BV

If it's 30 RAF working days, then it is about 7 1/2 weeks before you get it........

Wensleydale
 

That was my worry. By the time you factor in Wednesday sports (not for aircrew), early stack on a Friday (not for aircrew) and ‘office closed for staff training’ (not for aircrew) then you run out of time pretty quickly.

BV

(Trigger warning: this is 99.9% banter. If you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t have joined).

This might be irrelevant to your case but when I received my first pension payment, and subsequent, I was bemused why it was paid on the 12th of the month. It was later pointed out to me that was the day of the month when I took the Queen’s Shilling, forty years previous. Lump sum arrived in my account a few days earlier, if I recall correctly.

Speedy, I think it has to do with the day you left the RAF - I made my last day in service 11 November so I would always remember it and my pension in paid out on that day every month. I joined on 1 March - scarily 40 years ago!

aw_ditor
Just picked up on your 1975 comment. I finished March "74", the new pension scheme went through parliament in 73 but MOD decided to implement it in 1975!
We tried to get it back dated but the cynics amongst us decided that the MOD were banking (sic) on us dying off.
had another look recently when I found a document stating that widows/whatever could claim as long as the partner was serving had been serving in April 1973!

I left a few months ago. Lump sum arrived 9 working days after I officially finished. Pension, paid in arrears, was a seemingly random 20 working days afterwards.
I did chase it up as I’d heard nothing after filling in the paperwork several months earlier even though you’re supposed to get confirmation of receipt from them. They had received everything and could provide me the detail of what I would be receiving with rough dates as well.

Sven
 

That sounds more like I was expecting. Being overseas I’m loathe to make too many phone calls but it’s getting a little tedious. I’ll try to be patient for a little while longer.

BV

Bob, at least your pension, when you get it, will be increased by 10.1% next year according to what someone posted on another thread

Just a note:

For those that have been out a while and when you finally reach the military pension age, remember you actually NEED TO APPLY FOR IT roughly when it's due, it WILL NOT automatically be paid out.

BV - mine was just under a month, but was paid at the beginning of a month, so it may well be a PAYE type cycle.

PAYE Pay As You Exit.. ;)

Pension payment date is usually* based on your first day of joining rather than your exit date. So if you joined on 19 Aug 95 your pension will normally be paid on the 20th of each month (or slightly in advance for weekends, PHs etc).


* as always, there can be exceptions but this is what is outlined in the JSP. No doubt someone will be itching to show some untypical example because... well I have no idea really, just something that haunts PPRuNe.

My pension is paid on the working day nearest the 15th of each month, I attested on 15th April 1974, so it seems the Queens shilling runs like clockwork.

Likewise for my monthly, my previous was referring to my lump sum (75). Was 27 days after leaving but on the second of the following month

I joined Cranwell on 3rd of the month, but I never attested. Last day service was 20th. Pension is paid on 23rd. Go figure.

Ditto - my pension payment date doesn't seem to relate to any significant join/leave date.

I left on 9 Jun 22 and received my lump sum at the end of Jun. My pension also kicked in exactly as advertised, so absolutely dramas for me

Update
 

I realise you all have been frightfully worried about the status of my pension. I spoke with DBS again today and am told that it is in hand and should be paid soon.

I completed all the relevant paperwork well within the time limits and I am now on working day 36 since I left the RAF (we are told it could take up to 30 days). I guess someone just wanted to ensure I was reminded one last time how utterly inept and impersonal the whole admin and pay system became after 1 April 2006. As if I could ever forget.

The moral of the story is, don’t expect your pension to be paid on time. People are their number one priority though.

BV

My monthly immediate pension point (IPP) payment date is the date that I left Regular service, my lump sum rocked up about a week after I left - that was 11 years ago. It has no connection to my joining date. My index linking started on my 55th birthday and now my pension is uplifted every April. Again, no connection to leaving and joining dates. Payment times are all connected to “pay runs” on JPA.

For BV be prepared for getting your final month of pay in arrears first, then back dated pension and monthly pension in a backdated blob. The lump is normally paid separately in my experience. I suspect part of your delay will be the new AFPS15 scheme due to the career averaging element needing to be calculated after you have been paid your final monthly salary - that is likely why they state 30 days for payment. 36 days is a bit on the long side though, but I thought you said you were on loan service which may have caused a bit of extra added complication?

Bob,

I have had no probs with mine and I left in May 22, what I do know is that since, DBS is in chaos at the moment, i don't have the full story but what I do know is this:

The govt has forced DBS to move from Liverpool to Blackpool at very short notice.
This is a round trip of around 3-4 hours for most.
There has been absolutely no consideration for those colleagues that are disabled, have childcare concerns, etc.
As no doubt most will know, the folk you deal with are generally 2nd income earners, this is having a huge impact on the workers.
those in their twilight years are taking early retirement, and those that cant commute are chucking it.
there is now a pers shortage.
There may be strike action as a result.
and to top it off, they are getting lumbered with additional work that wasn't really pre-planned or has been sufficiently resourced. I know this because in my role I have had to redeploy a member of staff on a full-time basis to now do what they used to do for us.

why the move, well the word on the street is quite simply, the Tory govt decided to punish Liverpool, so make of that what you will.

good luck with getting it sorted, when it starts rolling in, those years of hard graft and fun will be well worth it.

Are you taking about the age 55 point on AFPS 75 or a different pension version? I rang SPVA a couple of months ago to ask exactly that question: whether there was anything I needed to do administratively beforehand, the rather helpful lady told me that no, it was automatic, kindly told me how much it was going to be, and sent me a letter confirming it.

Notwithstanding ur SPVA approach u need to apply for it the old-fashioned way PCD using at least Form 1 from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/veterans...plication-form. Remember we are all on AFPS 15 from 1 Apr 22 so if still serving, you will need to tick not just the AFPS 75 boxes.

Distinctly Unimpressed.
 

38 working days have elapsed since my last day of service. My most recent phone call to DBS confirmed that my AFPS Form 1 is on file and I have completed everything correctly and on time.

So, after 23 years of service, and a long time spent looking forward to my lump sum and pension I am left scrabbling around making international calls to chase up the whereabouts of the money owed to me.

It’s my birthday tomorrow so maybe someone just thought it would be a nice surprise to hold it back for a while. Either that or it’s just another example of how little regard we are held in by the ‘system’.

At least I can look forward to a speedy resolution to the AFPS75/15 fiasco and get the money that I am owed from that in a reasonable time scale. Oh no, wait a minute…

LJ

I will just add that when on loan service an individual still pays UK tax (ridiculous but there we go) and I was told that my time on secondment won’t hold me back or count as a break in service in any way since my PAS levels continued to advance while I was away. So, whilst I recognise that there may be some complicating factors with my own personal profile, some form of communication to explain why it is all taking so long might be a nice touch.

BV

They calculated my war pension start date a year later than owed, after a lengthy conversation going through the figures and dates, the woman on the end of the phone conceded she was wrong. Stressful.

Sorry, I wasn’t too clear. I’m already out, been in receipt of AFPS 75 pension for some years. I’m short finals to the age 55 point, when it uncommutes and index links. I thought that was what Nutloose was referring to, but I may have got the wrong end of the stick.

Do you need us to pass the hat round, Bob? Or do you have a ‘Will fly for food’ sign? :)

RLE
 

A whip round would be much appreciated thankyou.

So two things come out of this. One is that the pension may take longer than you expect to be paid. The second is that, now I have at least received my forecast, it is better than expected on all fronts. Which proves that the legacy calculator is useless for anyone who changed to PAS after April 15. Which makes the lack of an updated calculator even more shameful and pathetic.

BV

Regarding calculators and forecasts - my actual pension payment in the end was better than both! On chatting to others that seems the norm too (which makes sense, as you get ‘happy campers’ at the end when they get more than they expected!). :ok:

As for Secondment, then it definitely is treated as a career break - there was an IBN published about that recently.

Dude - have you been paid? If so how long was the actual wait?

Asking for a friend......

DS
 

I have been paid (I thought people might have got bored of my bleating!). It took 42 working days and I have a sneaky feeling that, if I hadn’t have spoken to them and had someone expedite my case, it could have taken a whole lot longer.

A dissapointing way to end 23 years in the RAF to be honest. Sadly I increasingly got the feeling that people were not their greatest asset.

I will also add that my pension pay date is the 28th. Completely random and not in keeping with any significant dates in my life or career other than it will always come near the end of the month.

BV