Equiniti Paymaster & armed forces pension payments
Equiniti Paymaster is the Ministry of Defence's paying agent for armed forces pensions. It makes the payments of all armed forces pensions on behalf of Veterans UK, so once your pension is in payment, Equiniti is who you contact about the money itself.
Key takeaways
- Equiniti Paymaster pays armed forces pensions on behalf of Veterans UK.
- Pension in payment? Contact Equiniti about payments, bank details, address changes and P60s.
- Pension not yet in payment? Contact Veterans UK via JPAC instead.
- Equiniti does not decide your entitlement; Veterans UK administers the schemes.
What Equiniti Paymaster does
Equiniti Paymaster (often shortened to EQ) is the MOD's appointed paying agent for the Armed Forces Pension Schemes. Veterans UK assesses and awards your pension, which is why a forecast of preserved benefits on AFPS Form 14 goes to Veterans UK and not to the paying agent; Equiniti then makes the actual payments into your bank account.
That split matters when something goes wrong. Questions about how much pension you are entitled to go to Veterans UK, and while you are still serving that figure reaches you each year on your Benefit Information Statement. Questions about a payment that has landed (or not landed), tax codes on your pension, P60s, or changing your bank or address details go to Equiniti.
How to contact Equiniti about your pension
Equiniti's armed forces pensions line is 0345 121 2514, and the email address is veteransukpensions@equiniti.com. By post, write to Equiniti, PO Box 2153, City Square, 40 Tithebarn Street, Liverpool L2 2YB. If you are holding an older form or gov.uk page, you may see a Crawley address instead (PO Box 1246, Sutherland House, Russell Way, Crawley RH10 0HZ). Equiniti moved its published pensions postal address to Liverpool during 2025 to 2026, so use the Liverpool one, and check the form itself if you are returning a specific document such as an overseas payment mandate.
Have your pension reference or National Insurance number ready, and note that none of these routes reach JPAC, the armed forces pensions enquiry centre you need while a pension is not yet in payment. If your query is really about entitlement (for example a pension forecast, or claiming a preserved pension), Equiniti will redirect you to Veterans UK, so start there instead and save a call.
If you are told your pension was overpaid
Because Equiniti runs the payroll, a letter saying your pension has been overpaid and that money will be recovered will often carry its name. That does not mean the error started there, and it does not mean the figure is right. The calculation behind a recovery demand comes from the same administrative process that produced the overpayment in the first place, so the first thing to do is ask for it in writing before agreeing to anything.
This became a live issue in 2026, when more than 1,000 veterans were asked to repay sums caused by administrative errors, with recurring causes including pension sharing on divorce, early departure payments, guaranteed minimum payments, guaranteed income payments and National Insurance adjustments. A pension debit applied wrongly after a divorce is one of the recurring cases, and how an armed forces pension is split on divorce explains where that debit comes from. Our pension overpayment page sets out why these happen, whether you have to repay, and how to challenge a demand through the Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure and then the Pensions Ombudsman.
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Frequently asked questions
James Hartley
James Hartley spent 22 years in the British Army, including unit personnel administration and pensions and records duties, and now writes the scheme guides and scenario pages on this site. He is not a regulated financial adviser, so the content is general information rather than personal advice.
Sources: gov.uk · GAD factors · Veterans UK · Forces Pension Society · MoneyHelper.