What we collect, what we do not, and why, set out without the legalese. Last updated 10 October 2026.
The short version: our calculators run entirely in your browser. The pay, service length and other figures you type are never sent to us and are never stored on our servers. Analytics counts visits in aggregate. The site is funded by adverts served by Mediavine, which uses cookies to show them. In the UK you are asked first, and if you say no you still see adverts, just not personalised ones. The one place we take personal details is the optional stamp duty enquiry form, and only if you fill it in and tick the consent box.
This privacy policy explains how this website handles information when you read our guides and use our Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) calculators. We are an independent education site for serving personnel and veterans. We are not affiliated with the Ministry of Defence, Veterans UK or JPAC, and we give estimates rather than regulated financial advice. Official forecasts come from Veterans UK, using form 12 if you are still serving or form 14 if you have a preserved pension.
For data protection purposes we are the data controller for the very limited information described below. The law that applies is the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, overseen by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). We have written this policy in plain English on purpose. If anything here is unclear, please ask and we will explain it, because a privacy policy nobody can read is not really protecting anyone.
When you use any calculator on this site, the maths happens locally in your browser using JavaScript. The numbers you enter, your pensionable pay, years of service, scheme, age and so on, are not transmitted to us, not saved to a database, and not shared with anyone. Close or refresh the page and that information is gone. We never ask for your name, service number, National Insurance number or any other identifying detail to give you an estimate, because we do not need it and we do not want the responsibility of holding it.
This matters more than usual for our subject. The figures you might type into an AFPS 75, AFPS 05 or AFPS 15 estimate, your salary, your length of service, whether you are claiming Early Departure Payments, can be sensitive. Because none of it leaves your device, there is no copy on our side to lose, leak, subpoena or sell. The calculator is, in effect, a private worksheet that happens to live on a web page.
Suppose you are an other ranks AFPS 15 member and you enter pensionable pay of 38,000 pounds to see roughly what one year banks. The calculator works out 1/47th of 38,000, which is about 808 pounds added to your pension pot for that year, then revalues it for inflation. All of that arithmetic runs inside your browser tab. This is an illustrative example only. On our side, the most we might ever record is the anonymous fact that the AFPS 15 calculator page was loaded, and even that only if you have agreed to analytics. We never see the 38,000 pounds, the 808 pounds, or that the visitor was you.
Running any website involves handling a small amount of technical data, so we want to be honest about it rather than pretend nothing happens at all. The limited categories below are all we deal with.
We do not collect special category data and we do not build marketing profiles ourselves. We do not pass the figures you type into a calculator to Mediavine or to any advertiser. We do not sell or rent the information we hold, with one exception you control: if you send a stamp duty enquiry and tick the consent box, we pass those details to an independent stamp duty specialist, who may pay us for the introduction. There is no registration, no account and no login on this site.
Some pages about the tax-free lump sum carry an optional form for readers using the cash to buy a home. It is labelled as a partner service, and nothing is sent until you press the button.
The calculators and guides are free because the site carries adverts. Those adverts are managed by Mediavine, an advertising company, together with the advertising partners it works with. We do not choose individual adverts, and we do not hand Mediavine the figures you enter, your stamp duty enquiry or anything you email us.
The wording below is supplied by Mediavine and describes its advertising in detail.
The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.
First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The "help" feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.
Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.
The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:
Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.
If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.
For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.
A cookie is a small file a website can store in your browser. We keep our own use of cookies and similar storage to the minimum. They fall into three honest groups.
A tiny amount of storage is needed for the site itself to work. For example, once you press OK on the cookie notice, we save that so it does not reappear on every page. This storage never tracks you across other websites.
Google Analytics runs on every page and sets its own cookies to count visits in aggregate. The cookie notice tells you this on your first visit. If you would rather not be counted, use a browser setting or extension that blocks analytics scripts, or clear and block this site's cookies. None of this breaks the calculators, which work exactly the same either way.
Mediavine and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to serve and measure adverts. In the UK and Europe, cookies that personalise adverts are only used once you agree in the consent notice. Turning them down does not remove adverts, and it does not affect the calculators. The advertising section above explains this in full.
We try to keep the number of outside services to a minimum, because every extra third party is another place data could go. The ones we may use fall into a few clear categories.
Our hosting, analytics, email and enquiry providers process data on our behalf. They act as processors under our instructions and are bound to keep it secure. Mediavine and its advertising partners are different: they decide for themselves how advertising data is used, so their own privacy policies apply to it.
Our default position is to hold as little as possible for as short a time as possible.
When you email us, we keep your message and email address only for as long as we need to deal with your enquiry. We do not add you to a marketing list, and we do not pass your details to anyone else to sell you products. Please remember that we provide general estimates and education, not regulated financial advice, so there is no need to send us sensitive personal or financial records. See the contact page for how to reach us.
Because we do not collect personal data through the calculators, there is usually nothing for us to look up, correct or delete about your use of the tools. Where we do hold something, for example an email you have sent us, you have the rights set out in UK GDPR, and we will not charge you for exercising them in normal circumstances.
To use any of these rights, just contact us and describe what you would like. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator, though we would always prefer the chance to put things right first.
This site is aimed at adults who serve or have served, and at people researching Armed Forces pensions. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. On security, the site is served over an encrypted connection, and because the sensitive calculator inputs never leave your browser there is no central store of them for anyone to attack. No method of transmission over the internet is ever completely secure, but keeping the data on your device removes the biggest risk by design.
No. The calculators run in your browser, the figures are never sent to us, and they are gone when you close or refresh the page. There is no copy on our servers.
No. Block analytics or decline personalised adverts and every calculator still works exactly the same.
Use a browser setting or extension that blocks analytics scripts, or clear and block this site's cookies in your browser.
The site shows adverts managed by Mediavine. In the UK, personalised adverts only run if you agree in the consent notice. Say no and you still see adverts, chosen from the page you are reading. The figures you type into a calculator are never passed to advertisers.
We do not sell or rent the information we hold. The one exception is the stamp duty enquiry form: if you fill it in and tick the consent box, your details go to an independent stamp duty specialist, who may pay us for the introduction. Nothing is shared unless you do that. Advertising cookies are set by Mediavine and its partners, as explained in the advertising section.
No. We are an independent education site and not affiliated with the MOD, Veterans UK or JPAC. We provide estimates, not regulated financial advice. For an official forecast, contact Veterans UK using form 12 if you are serving or form 14 if your pension is preserved.
We may update this policy as the site grows. When we do, we will change the "last updated" date above. Material changes will be spelled out clearly rather than buried in legal text, so you can see at a glance what is different and why.