Immediate choice or deferred choice?

Which of the two applies to you

Start with 1 October 2023. Every in-scope member was rolled back into their legacy scheme for the remedy period, so legacy benefits are the default and the baseline. The election, if you get one, is an election for AFPS 15 style benefits instead, not an election to keep what you have.

The Act splits members in two. Section 6, the immediate choice, applies to a member who immediately before that date was a pensioner member of the legacy or new scheme for that employment, or was deceased. Section 10, the deferred choice, applies to a member who was then active or deferred and not a pensioner member.

The AFPS regulations add a detail worth knowing. An immediate choice member was entitled to the present payment of a pension under the scheme, whether or not that pension was abated, where the amount was determined to any extent by reference to remediable service. So a rejoiner whose legacy pension is being abated still has an immediate choice, and if the election changes the amount in payment the abatement is re-assessed retrospectively. The definition also covers a deceased member.

The Early Departure Payment row catches people out. An EDP feels like a bridge rather than a pension, but leaving with one in payment puts you in the immediate choice group.

Immediate choice: 12 months, then it is fixed

The window is 12 months from the date the RSS is first provided in respect of the member, or such later time as the scheme manager considers reasonable. There is no fixed calendar deadline anywhere in the remedy: every window runs from an individual issue date, which is why the delivery position on the Remediable Service Statement page matters.

While the window is open you keep receiving what you are already paid. Something changes only when you elect for the alternative, or when the period ends without an election, at which point legacy benefits apply. An election takes effect immediately before you became a pensioner member, so the change is backdated with interest.

Once made, the election is irrevocable. The Act says so, the AFPS remedy schedule repeats that an immediate choice decision is irrevocable, and MOD's booklet puts it plainly: once you have made your election, this cannot be reversed.

Where the member has died the eligible decision maker decides, and that decision is irrevocable too. One protection exists: if the member dies before the end of the election period without deciding, a fresh statement is issued and the earlier one is treated as never having been provided, so the 12 months starts again.

Deferred choice: you decide when benefits are drawn

If you are a deferred choice member there is nothing to do now, by design. The decision is made at the point benefits, including an EDP, come into payment, when your final pay, rank and leaving date are settled facts. The Act caps the end of the election period at not more than one year before benefits would reasonably be expected to become payable.

The AFPS window is six months, running from the statement's issue date to the end of the day six months later, or such other day as the scheme manager considers reasonable. That six month rule is drawn from Schedule 2, the AFPS 05 schedule, so check the schedule covering your own legacy scheme.

In practice the sequence is nine, six, three. The election statement should reach you on JPA nine months before you leave, you have six months to elect, and the administrator needs the decision no later than three months before benefits become payable. A deferred member is contacted 12 months out to confirm an address, then sent the statement nine months out.

The election is made on a Pension Form 1 if you are active, available on JPA, or a Pension Form 8 if you are a deferred member claiming a preserved pension. Forms go as a hard copy to DBS. An election on a Pension Form 1 where there is no record of a statement having been issued is void.

Two situations bend the timetable. Discharged at short notice you still get six months, but if nothing is in by your last day legacy benefits are paid until you elect or the period ends. On a deferred medical discharge where the mode of exit could change, wait for a statement reflecting the actual mode of exit, because an election cannot be changed once benefits are being paid.

Can you change your mind?

This is the most practically valuable difference between the two routes, and it is specific to the armed forces rather than a feature of the remedy generally. An immediate choice election cannot be revoked at all. A deferred choice election can be, up to a defined point.

The AFPS remedy schedule lets a deferred choice member revoke at any time before what it calls the cancellation deadline: the beginning of the day one calendar month before the day the first payment in relation to your remediable service is due. Revocation is by notice to the scheme manager, and a revoked election is treated as never having had effect. MOD's consultation response says it without qualification: all deferred choice members will be able to revoke up to one calendar month prior to benefits coming into payment.

The hard stop is payment, not the end of the window. The Act forbids revocation once benefits have become payable after the election period ends, and MOD is explicit that once benefits are in payment under an election it cannot be revoked, even where a short notice period to leave brought payment forward.

A decision made by anyone other than the member is irrevocable. And if the scheme manager is notified before the cancellation deadline that the member has died, the member's own decision lapses and responsibility passes to the decision maker, unless the elected benefits are already in payment.

Doing nothing has consequences of its own. If the period ends with no election, legacy benefits apply, and MOD states that a default election is final. There is a discretionary safety net: the scheme manager may treat an election as having been made where that seems reasonable, and MOD said the administrator would have the right to elect for reformed benefits where the legacy position is clearly not in the member's interest. That is discretion, not a right you hold.

What you are choosing, and why an EDP brings it forward

The election covers legacy scheme benefits or AFPS 15 style benefits for the remedy period only, 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022. Service before and after is untouched. The legacy schemes in scope are AFPS 75, AFPS 05, EDP 05, FTRS 97, RFPS 05 and NRPS 11, and your statement shows total benefits under each option rather than the remedy slice alone.

One election covers everything in that employment or office, including all pensionable service under the relevant EDP and AFPS schemes, so you do not elect separately for your EDP and your pension. There is no second bite later: claiming a deferred pension at deferred pension age does not involve another remedy choice. Nor does the election reopen a resettlement commutation decision, though it does set the amounts available to commute under AFPS 15.

Leaving with an Early Departure Payment is itself an election point, which has no counterpart in the NHS, teachers' or civil service schemes and is the main reason armed forces members decide earlier than public servants elsewhere. AFPS 15 and EDP 15 also did not exist before 1 April 2015, so a member who left before 1 April 2022 sees no AFPS 15 or EDP 15 line under the legacy option. The EDP comparison and the final salary and CARE comparison cover the mechanics.

Why the guidance you have read may not apply

Most remedy material online is written for the NHS, teachers' and civil service schemes, and on timing the armed forces position is close to the opposite. If you have absorbed a 12 month window that starts after you retire, you have absorbed the NHS rules.

The revocation right described above is an armed forces scheme regulation detail rather than a rule running across the whole remedy, so do not assume a colleague in another scheme has it, or that you lack it. Nor does the NHS cost claim back scheme apply: the armed forces have no equivalent named capped scheme.

Finally the channel. AFPS elections are made on paper and posted to DBS, with no online portal, so build posting time into whatever window you are working to.

Appeals, tax and where to get help

If your case involves ill-health, the clock can stop. You can appeal an ill-health decision at any time up to the end of your election period, and if you launch an appeal inside that window the election period is suspended until the whole process is complete, including any later dispute resolution and Pensions Ombudsman stages. If you were medically discharged before 1 October 2023 and are mid-appeal, notify Veterans UK when your statement is issued.

On tax, MOD's headline for active and deferred members is that most people's tax position will be unaffected by a remedy election. Where it is affected, the correction runs through HMRC's Calculate your public service pension adjustment service on your R-PSS figures. Because an election changes the pension input amounts for the remedy years, read the Annual Allowance guide before you elect rather than after.

JPAC and DBS can explain the assessment, the award and the payment, but they cannot tell you which option to choose. For the decision itself, pay a regulated adviser who knows the armed forces schemes. This site is independent, not affiliated with the MOD, Veterans UK or JPAC, and gives general information rather than regulated advice. Next, check the document itself on the Remediable Service Statement page.