§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he is taking to ensure that officers, who carry out identical duties for identical periods but who retire a different periods, do not receive substantially different levels of pension and gratuity.
§ Mr. FreemanOfficers' pensions and gratuities are governed by the provisions of the armed forces pension scheme which are or were current at the time of their retirement, and by principles applied to public service occupational schemes generally. The provisions of th armed forces scheme have been improved on a number o occasions and such improvements are not, as a matter o principle, applied retrospectively to those who have already retired. Overall the costs of doing so would b prohibitive.
Pensions awarded are maintained, normally from age 55, at their original purchasing power by index-linking t reflect changes in the retail price index. However, change in rates of pay (from which pensions are calculated) ca in any period be greater or less than movements in th retail price index. Consequently pensions already in issue can, after indexation, differ in level from new awards mad subsequently.
There are no plans to change the application of th basic principle on either non-retrospection or index-linking.
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§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Defence what evidence he has that anomalies in the calculation o pensions and retirement gratuities are deterring officer from remaining in the services.
§ Mr. FreemanThere is no available evidence to suggest that this is so.
§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Defence what representations he has received from the Officer Pension Society about anomalies in the calculations o pensions and retirement gratuities; and what response h has made.
§ Mr. FreemanThe Officers Pension Society has bee campaigning on the issue of differing entitlements over many years. Our response has been to point out that pension differences result substantially from changes i entitlement and the principle, normal to the operation o public service occupational pension schemes, which rule out retrospective application of improvements to those who have already retired. However a particular point o concern to the Officers Pension Society in recent years ha been the effect on pensions when recommended pa awards are staged or deferred. The Government's position on this point was made clear by my right hon. Friend th Prime Minister in her written answer on 13 April 1984 a column383.