What remediable service actually means
Remediable service is the proper name for the slice of your career that the McCloud remedy puts back into your hands. It is the period from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022, and for members caught by the remedy it is the stretch of service where you, not the MOD, get to decide which scheme it counts towards. The word remediable simply means capable of being put right. The courts found that when the public service pensions were reformed in 2015, younger members were treated less favourably than older ones, and the fix is to hand affected members a choice over that seven-year window so nobody loses out because of their age.
The mechanics sit on top of a wider reform. From 1 April 2015 the armed forces moved to AFPS 15, a career average scheme. Some members, generally the older ones, were given transitional protection and allowed to stay in their legacy scheme, AFPS 75 or AFPS 05, for a few more years. Younger members were moved straight into AFPS 15. Because that protection was found to be age discrimination, the remedy rolls everyone affected back into their legacy scheme for the remedy period on paper, then lets them choose, at the point their pension is paid, whether to keep those years in the legacy scheme or take them in AFPS 15 instead.
So when you see the phrase remediable service on a statement, read it as your remedy period, the years from 2015 to 2022 over which you hold a one-off choice. It is not a separate pension or a bonus. It is the same service you always had, but with a decision attached. Everything before 1 April 2015 stays in your legacy scheme as normal, and everything from 1 April 2022 onwards is AFPS 15 for everyone, with no choice involved. The decision only ever bites on those middle years.
How it works across AFPS 75, 05 and 15
To make a sensible choice you need to know how the three schemes treat those years differently. AFPS 75 and AFPS 05 are both final-salary schemes, which means your pension for the remedy years would be worked out from your pay near the end of your service. AFPS 75 builds towards a maximum of 48.5 per cent of representative pay for your rank over a full career, and AFPS 05 builds 1/70th of final pay for each year, up to about 57 per cent. Both pay an automatic tax-free lump sum of three times your annual pension, with no need to give anything up to get it.
AFPS 15 treats the same years very differently. It is a career average revalued earnings scheme, so each year it banks 1/47th of that year's pensionable pay and revalues it to keep pace with inflation. There is no automatic lump sum at all under AFPS 15. If you want tax-free cash you create it by commuting, giving up annual pension at a fixed rate of about 12 to 1, up to a limit of 25 per cent of your pension. The normal pension age is also different: 60 on AFPS 75, 65 on AFPS 05, and State Pension age on AFPS 15 for deferred members.
Because the schemes are built so differently, the same seven years can produce noticeably different benefits depending on which way you choose. A final-salary calculation rewards late promotions and a higher final rank, while a career average calculation rewards steady service and keeps each year revalued in its own right. Your Early Departure Payment, your lump sum and the age you can draw your pension all shift with the choice. That is precisely why the remedy gives you the decision rather than imposing one answer on everyone.
Who is affected and who is not
Remediable service applies to members who were serving on 31 March 2012 and still serving on or after 1 April 2015, with service that falls inside the remedy period. In plain terms, you are affected if you were already in uniform before the 2015 reform and carried on serving into the window between April 2015 and March 2022. This captures a very large group of personnel across all three services, whether you were on AFPS 75 or AFPS 05 before the move.
You are not affected if your entire armed forces career began on or after 1 April 2015, because in that case all of your service is AFPS 15 from day one and there is no legacy scheme to choose against. You also do not hold a choice over any service after 31 March 2022, because from 1 April 2022 every serving member builds AFPS 15 for all future service, full stop. The remedy was never meant to reverse the reform; it only corrects the unfairness in how members were moved across during those specific years.
One threshold applies whatever your mix of schemes. You need at least two years of qualifying service to earn a pension at all. If you have that, the remedy protects your accrued rights in the legacy schemes, linked to your pay or rank at the point you leave, and paid when they were originally expected. The choice over the remedy years sits on top of those protected rights, and you make it through a document called a Remediable Service Statement, which sets the two options out side by side.
A worked example (illustrative)
Here is an illustrative example built only on the published scheme figures, to show how the choice changes the shape of the benefits rather than to forecast any real person's pension. Imagine a member who served the full remedy period of seven years from 2015 to 2022 and whose pensionable pay for those years is around 40,000 pounds. Under AFPS 15 the rough rule of thumb is pay times years divided by 47. That gives roughly 40,000 times 7 divided by 47, which is about 5,960 pounds of annual pension from those seven years, with no automatic lump sum attached.
Now take the same seven years under the legacy AFPS 05 rules. AFPS 05 accrues 1/70th of final pay for each year, so seven years would give roughly 40,000 times 7 divided by 70, which is about 4,000 pounds of annual pension from those years. On the face of it that looks smaller, but AFPS 05 also pays an automatic tax-free lump sum of three times the pension, so those years would carry an extra lump sum of around 12,000 pounds without giving anything up, and AFPS 05's final-salary basis means a late promotion could lift the figure further.
The point of the example is not the exact pounds, which will differ for everyone, but the trade-off it reveals. The career average route can produce a higher headline pension from the same years, while the final-salary route can come with an automatic lump sum and a boost from your final rank. Different pension ages, Early Departure Payment rules and tax outcomes all sit underneath those headline numbers too. This is exactly the kind of comparison your Remediable Service Statement is designed to lay out properly, using your own pay history rather than a round number.
Why remediable service matters to your pension
Remediable service matters because it is one of the few moments in a military pension where you genuinely get to choose, and the choice has real money attached. Seven years is a meaningful chunk of most careers, and the two schemes value those years on completely different logic. Pick the route that suits your circumstances and you can end up with a larger pension, a better lump sum or an earlier payment age. Pick without comparing and you may leave benefits on the table that you can never get back, because the choice is made once and is final for that period.
The choice ripples into more than just the headline pension. Your Early Departure Payment is calculated from the relevant scheme, and the gateways differ: broadly 18 years and age 40 on AFPS 05, and broadly 20 years and age 40 on AFPS 15, with the AFPS 15 EDP lump sum set at 2.25 times your preserved pension. The lump sum position differs too, with the legacy schemes paying an automatic three times pension and AFPS 15 paying nothing automatic. Even the age you can draw your pension moves, since the legacy schemes pay at 60 or 65 while AFPS 15 ties the deferred pension to State Pension age.
There is also a timing dimension that catches people out. For most members the remedy choice is made when the pension becomes payable, not today, which means you do not have to decide now and you should not be rushed. What matters now is understanding that the choice exists, gathering the figures, and keeping your service records straight so that when the moment comes you can compare the two routes on solid numbers rather than guesswork.
Common misunderstandings about remediable service
The biggest misunderstanding is thinking you must choose now or that the choice has already been made for you. For most members the decision is deferred until your pension is actually paid, so you can wait, gather information and compare the two routes with real figures. The MOD places you in your legacy scheme for the remedy period as the default starting point, but that is just the baseline; your actual choice is exercised later through your Remediable Service Statement.
A second mistake is assuming the remedy hands you both schemes for those years. It does not. You choose one scheme or the other for the whole remedy period, not a mix, and not both. You cannot cherry-pick the AFPS 15 pension and the AFPS 05 lump sum from the same years. The statement shows you each complete package so you can judge them as a whole, including the pension, any automatic lump sum, the Early Departure Payment treatment and the pension age that comes with each route.
A third trap is believing the career average scheme is automatically the worse deal because it dropped the final-salary link. That is not true across the board. AFPS 15 uses a faster 1/47th accrual and revalues every year for inflation, which can suit members with long service or fairly flat pay. The legacy schemes can win where a late promotion lifts the final figure, or where the automatic lump sum and earlier pension age carry weight. The honest answer is that it depends on your own career, which is why the statement and an official forecast beat any rule of thumb.
Tax treatment and related AFPS terms
On tax, the pension income from whichever scheme you choose for the remedy years is taxable as earned income in the normal way, through PAYE, just like any other AFPS pension. The tax-free elements are the lump sums. Under the legacy schemes the automatic lump sum of three times pension is tax-free, and under AFPS 15 the cash you create by commuting at the fixed rate of about 12 to 1, within the 25 per cent limit, is tax-free. If you qualify for an Early Departure Payment, the EDP lump sum is tax-free while the bridging monthly income to pension age is taxable.
The remedy can also bring tax adjustments of its own, because rolling your remedy years back into a legacy scheme and then choosing again can change the pension input amounts that count towards annual allowance for those years. The remedy framework includes a process for recalculating and correcting any tax that was over or under paid as a result, so you are not left out of pocket simply because the rules changed around you. This is administered alongside the remedy rather than being something you have to chase yourself.
Remediable service connects to several other terms you will meet. McCloud is the court case that gives the remedy its common name. A Remediable Service Statement is the document that sets out your legacy and AFPS 15 figures side by side. Accrued rights are the legacy benefits you built before the reform, protected and paid when expected. The Early Departure Payment, commutation and the deferred member status all behave differently depending on which scheme you choose for the remedy years, which is why understanding remediable service ties so many of these terms together.
How to check your own position and next steps
Start by working out your scheme history. If you were serving before 1 April 2015 and carried on into the window up to 31 March 2022, you almost certainly hold remediable service and a choice over those years. Your service before April 2015 sits in AFPS 75 or AFPS 05, your service from April 2022 is AFPS 15 for everyone, and the remedy period in the middle is where your decision applies. Knowing that map is the foundation for any sensible estimate of what the choice is worth to you.
Next, get the official figures rather than relying on rules of thumb. Your Remediable Service Statement is the key document, because it lays out the legacy and AFPS 15 benefits for the remedy years side by side using your own pay record. You can also request an official forecast from Veterans UK: serving members use form 12, and those who have already left with a preserved pension use form 14. A public calculator like this one gives a quick, transparent estimate from the published scheme factors, but it cannot see your representative pay tables, your exact pay history or your age-banded factors, so treat it as a starting point.
Finally, use the numbers to frame the decision and then take it seriously when the time comes. Remember the choice is generally made when your pension is paid, it covers the whole remedy period as a single package, and it is final once made. If commutation, Early Departure Payment timing or your pension age are in play, model both routes before you commit. This site is independent and is not affiliated with the MOD, Veterans UK or JPAC, and it provides estimates rather than regulated financial advice, so for a decision this size lean on your Remediable Service Statement, your official forecast, and where needed a suitably qualified adviser.