Worked examples of the armed forces pension and tax-free lump sum by years served. Pick a length of service, or use the full calculator for your own figures.
What an army pension and lump sum are worth after 6 years on AFPS 75, 05 and 15.
Read moreWhat an army pension and lump sum are worth after 12 years on AFPS 75, 05 and 15.
Read moreWhat an army pension and lump sum are worth after 16 years on AFPS 75, 05 and 15.
Read moreWhat an army pension and lump sum are worth after 22 years on AFPS 75, 05 and 15.
Read moreThe honest answer to “how much is an army pension worth?” is that it depends on three things: which scheme you are in, your pensionable pay, and how long you serve. Once you know those, the maths is straightforward, and you can put a sensible figure on both the yearly pension and the tax-free lump sum. This page walks through that maths scheme by scheme, with illustrative worked examples at several service lengths, so you can see roughly where you would land and what moves the number. Every figure here is an estimate built from the published scheme rules, not a formal forecast.
There are three armed forces pension schemes, and they pay out in very different ways. AFPS 75 and AFPS 05 are final-salary schemes, so your pension is a fraction of your pay at the end multiplied by your years served. AFPS 15 is a career-average (CARE) scheme, so it banks a slice of pension each year and revalues it for inflation. Most people serving today are building benefits in AFPS 15, often with some earlier service in a legacy scheme, so it is worth understanding all three. We are an independent education site, not affiliated with the Ministry of Defence, Veterans UK or JPAC, and nothing here is regulated financial advice.
The quickest way to size your pension is to learn the one formula that applies to your scheme. Each scheme builds your pension at a different rate, treats the lump sum differently, and pays out at a different age. Here is what drives the figure in each case.
AFPS 75 is the most generous of the three and the simplest to picture. It builds towards a maximum pension of 48.5% of your representative pay, reached at 34 years for officers and 37 years for other ranks. Below the maximum the fraction scales with your service, so half the maximum service gives you roughly half of the 48.5%. On top of the pension, AFPS 75 pays an automatic tax-free lump sum of three times the annual pension, with nothing to decide. Its normal pension age is 60, and instead of an Early Departure Payment it has an Immediate Pension paid at the service point.
One thing to watch: AFPS 75 uses the representative rate of pay for your final rank, not your literal salary, so two people on the same rank with the same service normally get the same pension. If you size it from your gross pay you will get a close estimate, but for senior ranks the official figure can drift from a rough calculation.
AFPS 05 is also final-salary but uses a clean accrual you can do on a calculator. Your annual pension is your final pensionable pay times your reckonable years divided by 70. In other words you bank 1/70th of final pay for each year served, building up to a maximum of about 57% of final pay at 40 years. As with AFPS 75, there is an automatic tax-free lump sum of three times the annual pension. The normal pension age is 65, and leave earlier and you usually hold a preserved pension, unless you qualify for the Early Departure Payment.
AFPS 15 works differently. Each year you serve, it banks 1/47th of that year's pensionable earnings as a slice of pension, and revalues every slice for inflation so older years keep their value. There is no automatic lump sum. If you want tax-free cash you commute part of your pension at a fixed rate of about £12 of lump sum for every £1 of yearly pension you give up, capped at 25% of the pension. The normal pension age is your State Pension age, and there is an Early Departure Payment from age 40 for those who qualify.
Because the older slices are revalued while you serve, a fair shortcut for most careers is to take current pensionable pay, multiply by years, and divide by 47. That reads a little high if you had a large late promotion and a little low if your pay fell back, but for a steady career it is close. So a member on £47,000 banks roughly £1,000 of pension for each year served before any commutation.
The examples below are illustrative. They use AFPS 05 and a £45,000 final salary so you can compare like with like across service lengths, then show how AFPS 75 and AFPS 15 would differ on the same pay. Your own figure depends on your exact pensionable pay, rank history and dates, so treat these as a guide and use the calculator for your own numbers.
On AFPS 05 at £45,000, six years gives 45,000 times 6 divided by 70, which is about £3,857 a year, with an automatic tax-free lump sum of three times that, around £11,571. Six years is short of every Early Departure Payment threshold, so leaving now would normally give you a preserved pension paid at 65, not money in hand. On AFPS 15 the same pay and service would bank roughly £5,745 of pension (45,000 times 6 over 47), with no automatic lump sum.
Twelve years on AFPS 05 at £45,000 doubles the six-year figure to about £7,714 a year, with a lump sum of around £23,143. You are still below the 18-year EDP 05 point and the 20-year EDP 15 point, so this is preserved-pension territory unless you stay longer. On AFPS 15 the same inputs bank roughly £11,489 of pension, again with no automatic lump sum but with the option to commute up to a quarter of it for tax-free cash.
Sixteen years on AFPS 05 at £45,000 gives about £10,286 a year, with a lump sum of around £30,857. This is the length where AFPS 75 officers reach their Immediate Pension point, so the early-payment picture starts to matter. On AFPS 15 the same service banks roughly £15,319 of pension. You are close to, but not yet at, the EDP 05 and EDP 15 service thresholds, so check the exact age and service rules before assuming an EDP.
A full 22-year engagement on AFPS 05 at £45,000 gives about £14,143 a year, with a lump sum of around £42,429. With this much service you may qualify for an Early Departure Payment if you leave before pension age, which would pay a tax-free lump sum plus a monthly income to bridge the gap until your pension starts. On AFPS 75, 22 years from age 18 reaches the other-ranks Immediate Pension point. On AFPS 15 the same pay and service banks roughly £21,064 of pension before any commutation.
Higher or lower pay scales the figure directly. Final-salary pensions are proportional to pay, so a £60,000 final salary on AFPS 05 produces a pension a third larger than the £45,000 examples above, and a £30,000 final salary produces one a third smaller. Multiply the example by your pay divided by 45,000 for a quick adjustment.
Two people who served the same number of years can still end up with very different pensions. These are the levers that move the number most, and the ones worth getting right before you rely on an estimate.
When and how you get paid depends on how you leave and how much service you have. Three terms come up again and again, and they are easy to mix up, so here is what each one means.
A preserved (deferred) pension is what you keep if you leave before your scheme pension age without qualifying for early payment. It is not lost. It is held for you, revalued each year for inflation, and paid in full at your scheme's normal pension age (60 for AFPS 75, 65 for AFPS 05, State Pension age for AFPS 15). You need at least two years' qualifying service to hold one.
An EDP is a bridge for people who leave with substantial service but before pension age. It pays a tax-free lump sum plus a monthly income from when you leave until your full pension starts, and it sits on top of your preserved pension. The qualifying points are broadly 18 years of service and age 40 on AFPS 05, and 20 years and age 40 on AFPS 15. On AFPS 15 the EDP lump sum is 2.25 times the preserved pension. AFPS 75 has no EDP.
The Immediate Pension is the AFPS 75 route, paid as soon as you reach the service point: 16 years from age 21 for officers, or 22 years from age 18 for other ranks. Unlike a preserved pension, it starts straight away, and unlike an EDP it is the actual pension rather than a bridge to it. If you leave AFPS 75 before that point, you hold a preserved pension paid at 60 instead.
These are estimates. The worked examples use published formulas and current factors but cannot reflect every detail of your record. For an official figure contact Veterans UK; for advice speak to a regulated adviser. See our disclaimer.
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